I've always really enjoyed Sigur Rós's brand of Post-Rock, beautiful instrumental pallet, and stunning vocals from Jónsi. This album is another heaping of this material, with great results here.
Vaka starts off the album and is quite a beautiful piano lead track with immaculate production. It's slow and takes its time. Jónsi's crooning vocals at the end of the song are crushing even though you can't understand a single thing he's saying. This track is 9.8/10.
Fyrsta starts slow once again and has a wintery feeling to it. Jónsi's vocals once again steal the show with his incredible vocals. Then the strings kick in and deliver a crushing blow. The gentle and smooth guitar passages at the end really deliver a feeling of weightlessness. This track is a 9.1/10.
Samskeyti is a good instrumental track featuring a great ascending piano phrase that repeats for most of the song. As the song goes on, more strings and instruments come into the mix and make this song a very pretty instrumental. Whilst I think this song is quite good, I also think it lacks a little substance and feels like it's missing something. This track is a 7.8/10
Njósnavélin starts off with these wild west sounding reverbed guitars and crisp drums. Soon, a rotund baseline kicks in. Then Jónsi's vocals come in, this time sounding a little more strange than the last time we heard him. For the most part, Jónsi in this track is repeating the same thing over and over again. Towards the end of the track comes this beautiful Glockenspiel that elevates this song even more. This track is fantastic but I just wish it was a little more exciting. 9.6/10.
Álafoss starts the second half with a bang, well not at first. It actually starts off once again pretty slow and ambient. Jónsi's vocals come in about 2 minutes later and it continues to progress very slowly. The track has these beautiful keyboard sections that make me feel like I'm ascending like Brendan Fraser in The Whale. The climax of this song is exciting whilst feeling beautiful. This track is 10/10.
E-Bow starts off slowly with crisp drums and crooning vocals. Then this odd sounding bass comes in while crashing drum fills envelop the song. About 7 minutes in comes the beautiful climax of the song with glistening piano keys and twinkly guitars. A special song with an incredible climax. This track is 10/10.
Dauðalagið is an absolute behemoth of a track, coming in at a whopping time of 12:59. It uses all of that time to craft an unbelievable and multifaceted masterpiece of a song. This song cuts right to the chase as, at 4 minutes into the song, there is an exciting moment with ethereal guitars and keys. Another similar moment happens at about 7 minutes in and is more intense than the first time. Jónsi's vocals get more powerful as the song goes on until the best moment of the song, about 11 minutes, in which his vocals are unbelievable. The instrumentation on this part of the song is straight up unbelievable. I could gush about this song for an hour but it's best to leave it here. A 10/10 song, no doubt, and the funniest part is that this isn't even the best song yet.
Popplagið is one of the best songs I've ever heard, it's such a special experience. Another long song coming in at 11:45 is another multifaceted masterpiece. It cuts straight to the chase with soft drums, beautiful strings, and rotund baseline. Jónsi's vocals on this one at first are a little more contained and controlled. It continues to build with the drums becoming louder, before cutting to a drum-focused section. Jónsi's vocals soon appear again, along with the bassline and guitar. Soon these beautiful violins come in and make this song even more textured. The drums soon become very loud and soon after, the song climaxes with Jónsi's crooning vocals. The drumming becomes erratic at points during this unbelievable climax. This song is easily a 10/10 and one of my favorite songs of all time.
There are a few negative things to point out in this album despite it's greatness. You could say it's too long and drawn out or maybe boring at points. To me, those don't apply, but mileage may vary if you want quicker songs. This album really takes its time and I appreciate that. My personal score for the album is 9.3/10. This is my first review in a while so if you have any criticisms, leave them in the comments underneath this post!
| 1 | Untitled ("Vaka") / 98 |
| 2 | Untitled ("Fyrsta") / 91 |
| 3 | Untitled ("Samskeyti") / 78 |
| 4 | Untitled ("Njósnavélin") / 96 |
| 5 | Untitled ("Álafoss") / 100 |
| 6 | Untitled ("E-Bow") / 100 |
| 7 | Untitled ("Dauðalagið") / 100 |
| 8 | Untitled ("Popplagið") / 100 |