Sigur R?s - Takk...
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Free Music Notes for Takk...
Free Music Review: Sorry folks, gotta disagree . . .
Hit: 3 Stars
I like Sigur Ros. I find the music imaginative, personal and at times profound. It evokes in me the fantasy of those little grey aliens arriving on earth and trying to communicate to us about where they are from and why they are here. We dont understand a word, but through their music they touch our hearts, and we are concerned for the little fellows . . .
Notwithstanding the visuals, I have to say that after a year of listening to Takk, I feel rather let down. Granted, there's a couple of outstanding tracks, and the vocal on "Gong" is just astonishing (this is where I offer the little alien the spare room . . .)But taken as a whole, this album doesnt have the consistency and sense of completeness of (), which is more of an old-fashioned concept album that should be listened to from beginning to end. This one has your i-pod in mind: download tracks 2,8,9 and 10.
Free Music Review: A New Genre?
Hit: 5 Stars
I'd listened to Agaetis Byrjun countless times when I finally picked up Takk... Too often the initial burst of creativity that a band brings to their first maor release fizzles; not so with Sigur Ros. Takk... continues opening new auditory scapes to the listener with even more depth, complexity, and raw emotion.
I find that people either really like Sigur Ros, or they don't. I find that it touches deep places within; if you enjoy those places being touched, this is your music.
That said it's not necessarily easy to listen to; not some set of catchy hooks; the tracks and album tell a sonic story that builds and progresses. Picking up in the middle doesn't make a lot of sense and at times can be a bit jarring =)
In short I can't say enough about this album or the artists. It's a truly original sound (at least to me), and living in the north (Maine) I appreciate how it describes the natural world.
Free Music Review: Best yet
Hit: 5 Stars
This is the best Sigur ros album yet. It seems the band adds on instruments from each recording. For example, the same glockenspiel type instrument that was used on Tiki. It is a good sign that the band is building upon its previous recordings. This is right up there with Agaetis Byrjun, if not better.Free Music Review: Good experience
Hit: 4 Stars
But by no means their best album, it is their most accesible yet, but i prefer the previous, Agaetis Byrjun. Don't get me wrong this is a great album, full of allucinating moments according to your emotional state. Every sigur r?s album is a different, enjoyable expierence. I of course recommend this one. Free Music Review: They make real purty music
Hit: 5 Stars
Takk... is the first Sigur Ros album I've heard all the way through (although Svefn-G-Englar and Ny Batteri from the Agaetis Byrjun album are all-time personal favorites), but it more than justifies the mountains of hype surrounding this band. This is, simply put, some of the most hypnotic and endlessly fascinating music I've ever heard, the tiresome accusations of pretentiousness notwithstanding (It's sort of depressing that people have devoted their time and effort to bashing this band when shamelessly corporate crap merchants like Staind would make much more worthy targets for their vitriol). At any rate, I've noticed a tendency to compare these guys to post-rock bands in the vein of Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and while there are certainly parallels, Sigur Ros bring to my mind the Flaming Lips, partly in the way they marry rock and orchestral sounds, partly in the way they manage to combine childlike wonderment with musical experimentalism, and partly in the way they've found a permanent place in my rotation despite having two of the least tough-sounding male vocalists in the history of popular music. And since the Flaming Lips rule, that's pretty good company to be in.
There are some traces of traditional rock sounds to be found on Takk..., mostly in the drumming, but they're combined with heavy doses of symphonic instrumentation (especially strings), which, along with the band's soaring melodies and the wonderfully alien, androgynous vocals of frontman Jonsi, elevate the band's sound into the aural stratosphere. For the most part, the album's early songs float by beautifully on shuffling beats and hauntingly ambient noise from the guitars, strings, and bits of piano and horns, only occasionally, as in the case of Glosoli and Milano, exploding into transcendent, guitar-laden rushes of sound. The first seven tracks on this album sound like Sigur Ros's version of devotional music (devotion to what, I'm not sure), all angelic vocals and upbeat arrangements, but after Milano Takk... takes a turn in a darker, more contemplative, and for my money more interesting direction.
If all the sunniness of the first seven tracks is too much for you, Gong and Andvari should provide you with some welcome relief, as they sound like the products of an album the band recorded while in a much more downcast mood. Gong is a bit harder-edged and more discordant than the rest of the album, sort of like a breakup song after a string of love ballads, filled with clamorous percussion and powerful vocals that, shockingly considering their source, can almost be described as aggressive. Andvari is Sigur Ros for a rainy day: slow, muted, and mournful, the repetitive drumming and string arrangements sounding almost funereal in comparison to the uplifting sounds found earlier. For its part, Svo Hljott, which gets my nod for album highlight, sounds like a summation of what's come before it, with a familiar quiet-to-loud-and-gorgeous build that still maintains a hint of the melancholy feel from the prior two tracks, with a rawer edge to the guitars and drums than, say, Glosoli.
If there is a weak spot to be found here I'd have to give the nod to Se Les, which sort of meanders for too long without an interesting melody to make it memorable. That said, everything else is more than good enough to make up for one little misstep. While Sigur Ros's work clearly isn't for everybody, it's equally clear that they're putting out some of the most creative and individualistic music out there today. Easily one of the top albums of 2005.