Sigur Rós - Sigur Rós
|
List Price: Our Price: $8.70 You Save: $5.28 (38%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.89 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Sigur Rós
Free Music Review: Sigur Rós changes the way we listen to music
Hit: 5 Stars
Well I have to admit that I first heard them in Vanilla Sky. That closing scene on the roof top and that MUSIC! I had to find out what it was, right away. Then I figured the band out and I was blown away. I knew Cameron Crowe is aware of how to put and fit cool and effective music into his films but Sigur Rós was an excellent choise for that scene and for the movie. We also heard older Sigur Rós song Svefn-g-englar in the film. That is how I got introduced to the fascinating world of Sigur Rós, pretty low, huh? :) These guys had released a lot of stuff before that, but I wasn't even aware! Thank God Cameron has his brilliant taste of good music. Later on I heard that the band never liked the film after watching it, when it was released. But even they liked the final scene and the usage of their song Njosnavelin, now titled Untitled 4. They came more popular because of it though. Movies are the best ones to spread the word.
All the tracks are titled Untitled and the only title on the album cover is Sigur Rós. This shows that these guys do their own thing and rely on their different but fascinating style, that makes them so interesting in the first place. There is no lyrics, there is just vocals, which go along with the music. It's music in its purest form.
Sigur Rós is the highest quality of alternative style and uncompromising originality. The music is floating like a dream, it's seductive and liberating at the same time. The sounds are really fresh and just listening to the floating melodies and haunting vocals departs listeners from this time and place. It delivers peace from the overloud pop, rock and techno revolution of our time, aparts you from the daily MTV mess, where everything sounds exactly the same. I am so fed up with a lot of the modern music that we are going through right now. All the high-produced and manufactured products, which all sound the same. I hope more bands like Sigur Rós will come out and introduce world something totally different, which makes music once again fresh and awakes feeling and emotions.
Sigur Rós is challenging us and their music invites us to experience the world and music in the way they see and feel it. Eventually, it's all about the emotions and feelings. It's about experiencing new and capability to reinvent music as it is. Sigur Rós does this and changes rock and pop into a silent harmony of enigmatic sounds that will haunt you for a long time. At least give it a change, it's something different and offers a challenge.
Free Music Review: Untitled as the Music Speaks For Itself
Hit: 5 Stars
Following their mind-blowing worldwide juggernaut of a record in Agaetis Byrjun, Iceland's Sigur Ros had really no place to go but down. Their second album gained them worldwide acclaim and this record justly was one of the most anticipated of the whole year. '( ),' their major label debut, against all odds, has possibly matched the brilliance of it's predecessor and has expanded the sound of the band into new, even more interesting territories.'Agaetis Byrjun' was filled with bombastic string arrangements that soared and gave the songs real huge dimensions. This record is amazingly different, in a kind of way I personally thought Sigur Ros wouldn't venture. They've stripped down their sound, but at the same time drawn it into a tight sound that seems just as natural as their previous airy soundscapes. The new compactness relies on the intense percussion of their drummer and then the songs are built off that extremely strong foundation. All the familiar elements of the band are here, but used in new ways. Jonsi's otherworldly androgynous vocals return as does his "hopelandish" (his own self created language) lyrics, that aren't meant to have any literal meaning, but act as another instrument in the sound. When couple with his guitar playing with a bow, it can't be beat.
The record comes with no real title, just usually referred to by the apostrophe shaped cut outs on the albums slip cover. The songs, averaging about 9 minutes, are also untitled. Critics will like to rag on these as pretensions, but it couldn't be more untrue. Sigur Ros like to create, as they themselves call it, a fully interactive music. The listener is able to free their mind of any kind of pre-conceived concept and create their own meanings and lyrics. In fact, the album booklet consists only of blank pages, meant to be used by the individual to write in their own lyrical, or even visual, interpretations.
A one word title if any would have been most appropriate because the tracks flow so well into each other it's not worth even trying to find where one ends and another begins. The album's contraction is one of the best parts as first half is much warmer and much of it is piano based (tracks 1 &3) and tender feeling (track 4) ; after a short silence separating the halves, the second proves to be menacing with aggressive drum beats (track 6)and even some straightforward guitar work that all climax at the end (track 8). The album at it's most brilliant (tracks 1,4, 6, & 8) is nearly unmatched today and at it's worst (track 5) it's inspirational.
Free Music Review: Hauntingly beautiful
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, I'll start this off by saying that I have sort of been with this band since the beginning, at least in this country. For some reason, I heard about Sigur Rós right when their CD was released in the US and I have to say that I wasn't initially impressed very much. However, as time went on and I left their debut CD in my stereo, it grew on me with a frenzy that has taken until just recently to peak. To me, it's really convenient that they just released their second (and first major label) CD, () Of course, anyone's initial reaction would be that it's just a pile of pretentious jargon meant to bring back the glory days of prog-rock/art-rock. Admittedly, this release (and the band itself) is pretty atmospheric and as artsy as they come, but they put such an orchestral rock twist on their music that it definitively distinguishes Sigur Rós from the Moby's of the world. () has some of the most wonderfully textured songs I have ever had the joy of hearing. This new CD builds on their debut and maintains all the positives of it. The vocals soar blissfully like a seraphim one moment and are dampened by the sheer orchestral weight of the band the next. The first third of the CD reminds me of Agaetis Byrjun with their uplifting melodies sprinkled with soft piano lines and vocals that make you feel like you are drifting off in space. "Track 5" brings you back down to Earth, slowly but surely. When you come back down, you still aren't fully sure where you are. When "Track 6" comes along, the clouds start rolling in and you realize you're in for some inclimate weather the likes of which you've never experienced. Little did you know that what lies ahead is a hurricane, the front end being "Track 7." It mixes some slight Pink Floyd/Godspeed You Black Emperor! atmosphere with Sigur Rós instrumentation. The vocals will saturate you in euphoric ways. This is all a build to the CD's closing track, "Track 8." This 11 minute epic begins with the eye of the storm, soothing and fairly anxious. As the track floats along, you begin to feel that something powerful is coming. About 5 minutes into the song, it arrives and builds up into the earth-shattering climax of the CD. It will blow you away. () is a journey. Sigur Rós would like you to go along with them. They'll let you get overwhelmed at the end, but they're right there with you throughout the entire process. This is one of the best CDs of the young century.Free Music Review: Wandering but Brilliant
Hit: 5 Stars
Sigur Ros' 2002 album has no real name, and all the songs are also untitled. There are no actual lyrics, all the vocals are in a nonexistent language. The booklet consists of several blank pages the band encourages listeners to write their thoughts in. Taken altogether, ( ) can seem kind of pretentious. It doesn't really matter though, it's about the music and it's pretty great.
( ) has two distinct parts, a light first half and a more intense second half. The first half is all about atmosphere. There's a lot of piano, especially in the third track which has a nice plunking tune, while the rest of it is more ambient pleasantness. They use distorted guitar to create texture instead of melody, and it's very dissimilar from the music you're probably used to hearing. It's best to not try and listen to it in quick bursts, and instead have it on when you're doing something else or just relaxing.
Where I think the album gets really interesting is the second half. It focuses on the build and release of tension, and with the time they take to get where they're going they can really create immensely enjoyable moments throughout. It takes them quite a while to get to the point, but once they get there it can be a transcendent listening experience. Some of it sounds like Radiohead at their spaciest, but Thom Yorke and company rarely get as climactic. The various songs can seem sort of similar in the way they work up to the big moments, but it doesn't make it less interesting or powerful. After the seventh track it seems like it's winding down, but before the final song ends it breaks into the hardest guitar you'll find on the record in a very satisfying conclusion.
The use of drums is much more important in the second half, as they set the intensity level almost by themselves, along with how passionate the vocalist sounds. Back to him, he's pretty good but I have a bit of an issue. Just because he's singing in a fake language doesn't mean it can't get repetitive. He sings what sounds phonetically like "You sigh on" or some close variation nearly constantly throughout the whole thing, and it can get irritating if you pay too much attention to him. It is this minor annoyance plus the very long amount of time it takes to get to the really good moments that keep the album from being truly excellent, in my mind. One could argue that the buildup makes the eventual payoff even sweeter, but I think it's still an imperfect way to make music.
Free Music Review: Untitled
Hit: 5 Stars
Sigur Rós make intensely visual music. The kind that conjures up images of blue skies, lush green Icelandic fields, and androgynous pink pre-teen soccer players (yeah, you remember that video). When in the right mood, I, for one, would be completely content listening to their brand of ethereal dream pop while watching anything at all; a snowfall at dusk, a parking lot at 3 p.m., my Snoop Dogg/Christopher Walken screensaver. Somehow, through the rose-colored filter of their majestic mini-symphonies, it's all equally poignant.
Sigur Rós somehow translate painstaking into evocative, slow into moving, and often plainly cinematic into downright cathartic. Using guitar effects and strings (or guitar played with a violin bow), piano, organ, and lightly brushed drums, they make idyllic and otherworldly chamber pieces; fleeting sounds appear and disappear like ghosts before they can be identified - the odd churn of distortion or twinkle of piano keys - but the sum total is undeniably redolent and generally beautiful.
The eight tracks that make up the new album are similar in nature to Agaetis Byrjun, yet as the band themselves state, there is a livelier feel among them, as if the band were playing a private concert just for your ears. All tracks are uniquely their own, each having their own surprises and their own set of layers that will be discovered after repeated listens.
Among the highlights of the album is the thirteen minute opus of track seven, a song that demonstrates the many musical dimensions that their live experience brings forth. Beginning in a slow rise, with an organ sound leading the way, the song is moved by the drum's increasing beats and the singer's Yorke-esque voice which leads the way for the rising crescendo. The song's final rise is a spectacular combination of drums and cymbals with the infuriating voice of the singer, ultimately leaving the singer alone to echo his voice away in a breathtaking way. The band courteously gives listeners a few seconds of silence before the next song is to begin.
Track eight is the heaviest song of the album, which by Sigur's standards is not heavy at all, but the band's furious end of their atmospheric journey is just as intense, hard and frenetic as the hardest of the metal bands.
It is impossible to describe in words the beauty that a journey through () perpetuates, so you must simply go and listen...just listen.