New Sigur Ros

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I just picked up a CD today - Sigur Ros' "Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust". It's covered with stickers advertising the Japan Tour this year (which I can hopefully get tickets for this month when they play Nagoya in October) and has a Japanese insert. This is a global CD right and not a Japan-only which groups like Feeder have produced (with "Another Yesterday")....

Gonna listen to it in a bit, can't wait....

Track 1: Gobbledigook

A beautiful start. Loads of fun and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Track 2: Inní mér syngur vitleysingur

It's got glockenspiel, horns, beauty, epic peaks. It's perfect Sigur Ros.

Track 3: Góðan daginn

Chilled out and kinda folky. Acoustic guitars with a rolling choiral sigh in the background. Nice actually.

Track 4: Við spilum endalaust

Return of the horns! It's got the most formulaic approach of verse/chorus/verse/chorus that I've heard from Sigur Ros but it's a fun, happy song. Lying in a garden with your head against the head of your loved one looking up at the clouds and flicking grass at eachother.

Track 5: Festival

A 9+ minute monster. It's a new Glosoli. Jon really has an amazing voice. Four and a half minutes of minimism and then three minutes(!?) of build and WOOOOOOOOW. I have tears in my eyes. What a girl I am.

Track 6: Með suð í eyrum

Haunting piano and tomtoms. Kinda navel gazey and introspective but that's perfect after Festival. Woah. Okay that last 1.30 of the song was very very special.

Track 7: Ára bátur

Back to lo-fi. Piano + Jon singing. Icelandic is a beautiful language to sing in. Suddenly I notice strings but they've been playing for ages just perfectly interwound into the sound that I didn't even realise. At over 8 minutes it's perhaps a little too painfully intensely lo-fi...And then orchestral explosion at the end finale style.

Track 8: Illgresi

A bit too acoustic for me.

Track 9: Fljótavík

Back to beautiful which suits me fine. Lovely violin work.

Track 10: Straumnes

Instrumental. Delicate, tender, similar to the awed beauty soundtrack work on the Sunshine movie. Just a couple of minutes but lovely.

Track 11: All alright

Here come the waves, muted horns and Jon leading us out in thoughtful falsetto. A lush end to a new and mighty album. It's all alright.

Hidden Track: Follows on really well - like an extension just with a deeper layer of band instruments. Happier and a worthy alternative end to the album which leaves you more cheerful probably and on the same level of chill out.

Ok, so ANOTHER Sigur Ros album looks like it's heading into my top 10 of all time. That's three at last count. It's really THAT GOOD.

It's quite stark in places but that works everywhere except track 8 I think which is just TOO acoustic.

So how will I listen to it? Track 1-7 straight through no probs. 8 may be skipped most times. Back on for 9 and through to the end.

Edited August 25, 2008 by ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster

[ROC]

Well...it definitely came out in the U.S., as when I pop into a store like Barnes and Noble, there's the band's asses running in the fields.

[Herr Matzat]

If i am not completly of this CD has been out for at least a Month. The EU Version sucks bad, you´re suposed to pay 18€ for nothing, just cardboard with a CD in it... EMI is doing that to almost all of their CDs latly... compared to the download you pay 8€ more for a pice of paper and a the pressed CD...... no insert, no Booklet... :-/