What an intriguing, engrossing, delightful set of songs. As Sigur Ros slip more and more in to the musical mainstream, it often pays to look at the back catalogue to see the true roots of a band. With Sigur Ros, this is less a good idea and more a necessity.
Whatever you want to call it (The Brackets album, The Untitled Album, or simply '( )'), this album is utterly sublime. I've often listened to this thinking that no words could describe the music and subsequent moods and emotions it generates, which is not so good when reviewing the album! But I'll give it a go.
'( )', as I shall refer to it from now on, is more an experience than just a set of tracks. From what I've heard by them, it is the best album Sigur Ros have produced. Twice the album 'Takk' is anyway. At 8 tracks, it falls short of the usual number of tracks on their other albums, but the level of quality within these 8 songs more than makes up for their quantitive value.
'( )' is an appropriate title in my opinion, as the first and last tracks are my slight personal favourites. As they are all (officially) untitled tracks, I shall refer to them numerically. (Besides, my Icelandic isn't exactly great, so it saves on bad spelling!) Tracks 1 and 8 bracket the album superbly, and start and end a musical journey that few other CDs can match. There are two slight opposing moods throughout '( )'. The first half is a little more mellow than the final 4 tracks, where the tracks build up slightly and add more depth and feeling. Although not entirely different to one another, the two halves of the album complement each other perfectly. I've referred to this album as a whole so far, and there is a reason for that. There is no one outstanding track, and there is no one weak track. Each of the 8 offerings will offer a different emotion, a different spine-tingling sound. It's all so beautiful.
Now, how to describe the music itself... Well, if you are reading this you have most probably heard at least one track by Sigur Ros and therefore have some sort of opinion on them. I believe it is best to approach this album without prejudice or any previous thoughts on the band. It is a different flavour to any of their newer material; slower paced and more intricate and detailed. The music is ambient, both brilliant as background music and as focussed listening. The emphasis is very much on the instrumental, as the vocals are minimal, sporadic, quietly melodic and merely offer another layer to the tracks rather than convey any message or poetry.
As you may have guessed, I am a fan of this album. In fact, over recent months it has become one of my favourite albums of all time. Any music fan with the slightest interest in the alternative should invest in this album. Sigur Ros have not yet beaten this offering in their follow up albums, and I believe would be very, very difficult to do so in the future, not just by Sigur Ros but by any band.
In short, buy this album whatever the price. I hope it enhances your music collection and your life as it has mine.
Summary: An emotional, chilling musical journey
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Anyone expecting Sigur Ros to have abandoned their emotional and majestic approach will ... more
think again after hearing the opening bars of their new album,( ). When Sigur Ros released their second long playerAgaetis Byrjunback in 1999, they caught everyone ...
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Anyone expecting Sigur Ros to have abandoned their emotional and majestic approach will ... more
think again after hearing the opening bars of their new album, ( ). When Sigur Ros released their second long player Agaetis Byrjun back in 1999, they caught everyo...
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