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Critic Reviews
100
Ágætis Byrjun is an album for the heart and soul -- an album for your life.
14y
100
For all of the hyperbole thrown at this album, it still remains indescribable. It sounds other worldly, while seeming so beautiful and so natural. It represents a standard, and one the band really have yet to duplicate, yet somehow, it’s impossible to think that they really ever will.
13y
100
With songs rarely coming in under seven minutes, Ágætis byrjun does move at a glacial pace, but it's never sluggish. It is, however, the kind of record that can immediately change the mood of the room you're in.
2y
94
Sigur Rós effortlessly make music that is massive, glacial, and sparse. They are Hidden People ... They are the first vital band of the 21st Century.
15y
90
At its best this album is exhilarating and beautiful and will send shivers down your spine every time. At its worst, well, it’s good for falling asleep to.
12y
90
So engrossing is the spell with which Sigur Rós work, so powerful is the scope of their vision, that post-rock or not, they’ve certainly created a sort of music unlike any that’s been made before.
12y
90
At its best, the album seems to accomplish everything lagging post-shoegazers like Spiritualized or Chapterhouse once promised. However, at its worst, the album sometimes slides into an almost overkill of sonic structures.
15y
83
Here's a work of lunar beauty. Get blissed.
6mo
80
Rós' music is all midnight sun and bummed-Viking angst.
11y
80
They evoke folks as diverse as Led Zeppelin and My Bloody Valentine, but the gently woozy Sigur Ros don't sound like anything or anyone else so much as a classic-rock band bewitched by white magic.
11y
80
Sigur Rós is perhaps the first (and only) Icelandic export to strike an international nerve since the Sugarcubes.
11y
80
Sigur Ros's second album proper features this astonishing opener ["Svefn-G-Englar"] and 10 others which, while surprisingly diverse, each reflects their penchant for apocalyptic serenity, overdriven guitars and teenage singer Jonsi's Birgisson unique Hopelandish language.
Print Only
3y
70
Waves of unidentifiable noise, dulcet vibraphone pulses and singer/guitarist Jonsi's ethereal singing (more like some ghostly instrument than any conventional vocal, borne out by Jonsi's fictional 'language', Hopelandish, which he often sings in) mesh to create an elegant, grand music that's equally ambient and epic.
13y
60
They may be prone to kicking off songs by sustaining one note until they get bored, but greater crimes have been committed in the pursuit of post-rock queerness - and Sigur Ros have a great deal of redeeming prettiness.
10y
60
A moody full-length work that create a unique transcendentality that sweeps through emotions from woozy guitar-led tracks to jerky, twisted numbers.
2y
The water is cold. Thousands upon thousands of icy shards prickle your every nerve like needles severing what little protection remains against that infinite winter. Waves cascade upon snow-draped banks, threatening to topple and drag you into depths that are too great and formidable to comprehend. You tether upon the brink.
Behind you, when the winds lapse in their incessant howling, a faint constellation of lights glimmer once or twice. You can almost see the lanterns burning on the porches; ... read more
Starting the year with this weird ass looking baby/fetus/alien album🎉🎉
To be honest, I've heard some songs off this album about six months ago and I thought it sounded like bullshit Disney music mixed with post rock, and I was bored as hell. Since then I was kind of afraid of going back to it despite the album's reputation. But about a week ago I finally decided to give it another try, and yeah I was an idiot.
This is the band's sophomore album, released in 1999, after their not very ... read more
The second best thing to come out of Iceland… just behind Bjork
So this is an album that I’ve been foaming at the mouth to listen to. Since I am an AOTY user, I’m of course a huge post-rock junky, and seeing the genre tags of post-rock and dream-pop, it kind of sounded like the perfect album for me. But I was a bit afraid to give it a full listen due to some people saying that it was boring, so I put it off for a little. But after listening to it, I now know that ... read more
152/365
This was such a beautiful album. Sung in Icelandic and a made up language I did not understand a word yet I still had a great time listening to this. The string arrangments (cello I believe) add so much warmth to the sounds on this album. The singer's voice is excellent and so unique, it sounds fragile almost, in a good way obviously. Just so luscious.
enjoyed this. need to hear it again to really delve deep but i liked it quite a bit. not always a big post rock fan but sigur ros' specific brand of ethereal mixed with gloom is very enticing to me.
![Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯ A♯ ∞ [CD Version]](https://cdn2.albumoftheyear.org/200x0/album/53478-f-a-expanded-version_173611.jpg)
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Contributions By
wallver, patton, royalflush, philthy, Alejandro González, erik, sweertner, OPENblinds, mxdrxw, MarkCooper, polduan, Dombot, 𝐥𝐢𝐳Become a Subscriber
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Track List
| 1 | Intro 1:36 | 83 |
| 2 | Svefn-g-englar 10:06 | 95 |
| 3 | Starálfur 6:46 | 94 |
| 4 | Flugufrelsarinn 7:47 | 92 |
| 5 | Ný batterí 8:10 | 94 |
| 6 | Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm) 7:10 | 90 |
| 7 | Viðrar vel til loftárása 10:17 | 93 |
| 8 | Olsen olsen 8:02 | 94 |
| 9 | Ágætis byrjun 7:55 | 91 |
| 10 | Avalon 4:02 | 85 |
Total Length: 1 hour, 11 minutes
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1mo
Everytime I touch this album I literally burst into tears from how beautiful it is and then I just leave it alone for weeks again and I literally don't know why
1mo
FREKAR SLEKK EG AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR