Friday, September 23, 2005

A Good Start

Àgætis Burjyn – Sigur Rós

Another rediscovery from the depths of the CD drawer. After reading the effusive reviews of Sigur Rós' latest release Takk, I gave their previous album () a listen. I was then keen to buy the new one, but I also realised I had a copy of an older album of theirs, Àgætis Burjyn, that I'd barely listened to.

Sigur Ros are justifiably raved about throughout the music press. Even though their mellow melancholic mood is far from my favourite style, I can't help but appreciate their musical talent. In and of itself their style isn't completely original, being sort of related to the post-Radiohead mope-rock movement but Sigur Rós execute it absolutely flawlessly, creating sublimely beautiful and uplifting music that even I, Mr. Obnoxious Cynic Man, find it hard to detect a note of schmaltz or tweeness in.

Every track on this album is pretty good but my favourite song would have to be Viðrar vel til loftárása, which slowly builds from a gentle piano piece to a string laden climax before disintegrating into exuberantly joyful chaos. I probably prefer this album to (), but they're both 'must own' items, and I'll be getting the new one tomorrow.

2 comments:

Squirk said...

You got all the Icelandic looking beautiful -- but you might have missed a spot on the English ;-)

Did you actually mean "CD draw" like radio stations have? If so, how do I enter? :-p

(The grammar Nazi strikes again!)

Jon said...

Goddamit! Which is to say, 'updated'.