After gushing about another Sigur Ros album earlier I was pretty keen to get the new one. It's another incremental but solid development of their signature sound. The differences aren't all that obvious but they're there. Too my ears it sounds a little glitchy, which is a bit of a surprise, there are pops and crackles of static in the background of many songs, and the acoustic instruments sound a little scratchy and play with slightly stuttered rhythms, most notably on the second track Glōsōli. Secondly the songs are somewhat more conventional and accessible than on previous releases. The song structures are more poppy and the ambient noodling is kept in check a little more than on (). The vocals are also more song like, although their singers weird croon is still, well, weird. So having said that it is only slightly more accessible, with many songs still pushing the ten minute mark, and plenty of that Icelandic quirkiness is still present.
The songs are still primarily piano driven and pretty, although at times it does go a little heavier and let the distorted guitars rip over big stompy drum beats. Of course this is still not Rammstein, the music remains distinctly upbeat through and through. Perhaps a little too upbeat, while I noted that Àgætis Burjyn risked falling into tweeness but didn't, this album pushes that boundary a bit more, meaning it can become grating if you're in a bad mood.
I don't quite enjoy this one as much as Àgætis Burjyn , and it's not a huge development from what they've done in the past, but it's still pretty solid. These guys are (in my opinion) one of the bands that in twenty years time will be recognised as having majorly influenced the direction of popular music, but I guess we'll have to wait a while to see if I'm right.
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