Review - Sigur Ros

(My last assignment for Magazine Writing.)

Sigur Rós’s albums have given me bouts of euphoria as well as night terrors, and there’s only one way to have that kind of effect on my psyche: you have to be a four-piece post-rock dream-pop group from Iceland and not have any scruples about breaking convention (as if Icelandic didn’t already sound like gibberish, they actually use their own vocabulary of made-up words called Vonlenska, which means “Hopelandic”).

Between 1997 and 2008, Sigur Rós released 5 studio albums, and here they are in order of gorgeousness.

5. Von, 1997 – Their debut album is terrifying and stressful to listen to. I remember 1997 as a relatively happy year, but Sigur Rós never got that memo. The beginning of the first track – titled “Sigur Rós” – sounds like what the soundtrack to the Blair Witch Project would have been with a Hollywood budget. Eerie bug-like squeaking sounds in the background, minimalist woodwinds, and haunting minor key arpeggios mean you should never fall asleep to this album.

Clearly Sigur Rós had not found its stride yet, seeing as some tracks sound like Duran Duran on shrooms. Kjartan Sveinsson won’t join the band till 1998, when he’ll become the only member with musical training (you can tell). The high point of this album is track 6, “18 sekúndur fyrir sólarupprás” (18 seconds till sunrise), which is 18 seconds of silence….

4. (), 2002 – Yes, those are parentheses. I won’t even go there. Every track on this album has its own distinct other-world and most don’t have lyrics, strengthening arguments that Sigur Rós is more neo-classical than neo-pop/rock. The high point, “(vaka),” is a spectral ballad that reflects the piano riffing that they’ll perfect in their next album. I have nothing bad to say about () except that it’s not as memorable as the others….

3. Takk…, 2005 – Takk… is a series of beguiling chord progressions that they expound upon for anywhere between two minutes and ten and a half. Singer Jónsi Birgisson really starts to take a starring role in his mini-symphonies, perhaps thinking of them now more as pop songs. Most uniquely characteristic of Takk… is its focus on singles. I challenge you to find any pop song as catchy as “Hoppípolla” or “Sæglópur”….

2. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, 2008 – This is the first record that Sigur Rós really built like a rock album. Each song is distinct, like in (), but in place of the mini-symphony we have simple ballads with a light orchestral presence (“Ára bátur”), and raucous orgies of foreign percussion with acoustic guitars played by dingbats (“Gobbledigook”). As beautiful as anything off Takk…, but roiling with originality, innovation, and structure, it’s a perfect consummation of the range of Sigur Rós’s canon….

1. Ágætis byrjun, 1999 – Ágætis byrjun has generally been hailed as one of the great albums of the 90s and Birgisson’s angelic tenor is no small part of its majesty. His androgynous falsetto is present throughout as the band takes us from what I imagine as the seeds of time to the grandness of mankind’s melancholy happiness. The tundra of Iceland is as clear in “Starálfur” as it could ever be in person. The epic “Svefn-g-englar” is notable not only for the fact that one can hardly make out any familiar instrumentation in the whole ten minutes of it, but Jónsi’s vocals are pure alien opera. Every track is worthy of tears, and I have cried to nearly every one. Whatever your musical affiliations, Ágætis byrjun is unlike anything you’ll ever hear….