Yes, yes. I know I'm late to the party...
Artiste: Sigur Ros
Nationality: Icelandic
Album: Takk...
Year: 2005
Label: Geffen
Genre: Post-rock/Ambient/Art rock (thanks, Wiki...)
Tracks
Takk...
Glósóli
Hoppípolla
Með blóðnasir
Sé lest
Sæglópur
Mílanó
Gong
Andvari
Svo hljótt
Heysátan
Chronological position: Fourth album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting Factoid:
Initial Impression: Am I back in Solar Fields territory?
Best track(s): Hoppípolla, Sæglópur, Mílanó, Andvari
Worst track(s):No, I don't think there was anything on this album I didn't like.
Comments: So once again we come to a band most people here seem to know, and love, but of which I am completely ignorant. However, in an effort to step away from my English-dominated music collection, I'm prepared to branch out and give these guys a go. They've certainly been successful, though I'm a little unsure, going by the less-than-clear genres Wiki slaps on them, if they'll be my cup of Tetley, but sure, as they say, we'll give it a go. What's the worst thing that can happen? (You had to ask, didn't you?)
Nice, ambient synth opening on the title track, very short, just under two minutes, with a sort of prelude perhaps to the album? Not an awful lot in it, but we shall see how it goes from here in. Things staying nice and relaxed, with some sprinkly piano and a rather nice female vocal on
Glósóli: of course I have no idea what she's singing about, but if the music is good enough that can matter less than it usually does, and this music is quite nice I must say. More percussion coming in now, nice powerful guitar ramping up the tension. Have to admit, I like this so far. Beautiful piano intro to
Hoppípolla, soon joined by slowly thumping drums and some nice strings. Oh, wait. I'm wrong about the singer; the falsetto vocals of Jón Þór Birgisson fooled me into thinking he was female until I checked, and I see he's a guy. Woops! Well, he puts in a fine performance here, but you could definitely be forgiven for thinking Sigur Ros have a female vocalist. Um. Anyway, lovely use of a full choir too on this track.
Sé lest is very interesting: almost nine minutes of pretty much pure ambience, that falsetto vocal rising above tinkling piano to form a really lovely soundscape, while
Sæglópu changes everything, kicking it all up and becoming easily the heaviest and most dramatic track on the album so far. The longest track then, at just over ten minutes,
Mílanó keeps things fairly strong but with some more nice soft piano running like a river through the tune; surprisingly, it's over rather quickly. Things get a bit manic with
Gong but then slow right back down as the album winds towards its end, with
Andvari pulling back on the throttle and idling along, and it's nice and slow then for the final three tracks.
I do like this. It's different, and of course, among the very many languages I can't speak is Icelandic, so not being able to understand the lyrics is a little off-putting and perhaps leads to an overall lesser enjoyment of the album for me than someone who's fluent in this language might have, but I still found a lot to keep me interested and make me come back to check out this band some more.
Overall Impression: Very nice, a new band to look into.
Intention: As above, listen to some more of Sigur Ros's material.