Sigur Rós -Með SuðÍ Eyrum ViðSpilum Endalaust

Fri 1st Aug, 2008 in Music Reviews

Even if you don’t know Sigur Rós’ hypnotic, beguiling take on – œmusic’, it’s quite likely you’ve read about the band. For nearing a decade now, they’ve attained the sort of plaudits normally only bestowed upon Radiohead. Hell, that band even plucked them as their support act once upon a time.

But that was, in the – œmusic world’, seemingly eons ago. Since the heady days of Ágætis byrjun, the Icelandic troupe has released a clutch of albums that have propelled them to something akin to super-stardom, and made themselves a festival favourite worldwide. All this for a band who are, for the most part, purveyors of a genre that is so myopic – really, they’re just a post-rock group with grand designs, right? – that it’s practically a pupil short of being one-eyed. Al this for a band who, save for the final six-and-a-half minutes of Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust, have never sung in English before; whose frontman barely sing in Icelandic, instead choosing the make-believe language – œHopelandic’.

So, is that enough vitriol to count as a backlash? If ever it’s going to happen to Sigur Rós, it’ll be in the wake of “All Alright”, the final number here, in which frontman Jónsi Birgirsson has the temerity to sing in English. On the band’s major label debut, no less. How gauche! How passé! How positively post-post-something-or-other! How surprising. How beautiful. How stunning. How so much more than – œsomething’ – in the world of Sigur Rós, it’s a major landmark event.

Needless to say, Sigur Rós buck the status quo on Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust – opening cut and first single Gobbledigook is all rhythmic propulsion and non-stop handclaps. Working with regular U2 producer Flood, Sigur Rós have crafted their – œbiggest’ sound yet with this album. A cut like Festival has the anthemic qualities that Coldplay have reached for – and failed to grasp – on their most recent effort, while Ára Bátur unleashes its sonorous beauty in typical Sigur Rós style, uncurling and expanding before becoming an an epic complete with over 90 people including the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy’s Choir contributing to it.

Sigur Rós sound like no-one else, and no-one else sounds like Sigur Rós. They’ve expanded their sound and repertoire since debut Von, and they’re the sort of group that explodes the concept of the term – œmusic’ – they make a sound that’s truly their own, and doesn’t sound of this planet.

Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust is out now through EMI.