Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New batteries, 24 Jun 2008
Sigur Rós's astonishing 1999 LP, "Įgaetis Byrjun", was unreplicable. In the years since, they've made catchier songs and noisier songs; but nothing quite matches the otherworldly ambience of their early masterpiece. "Meš suš ķ eyrum viš spilum endalaust" marks a change of direction. In short, it's the first time Sigur Rós have sounded like a band, rather than a school of whales at the bottom of a fjord.
The first four songs are fresh, sunkissed, acoustic, playful: you'd hardly believe it's still Sigur Rós, but it all works beautifully. The message is clear: this is a fun album, a soundtrack for summer, for festivals, for beaches, for running naked across roads. After this brilliant opening, the album loses momentum a little (in particular, "Įra bįtur" is overlong and overblown, with choirs and orchestras battling with the vocals for space in your ears), but it's all done with enough verve to keep your finger away from the skip button. "Meš suš" is by far Sigur Rós's most accessible record, and is a fine place for newcomers to start.
The bottom line is that "Meš suš" is good news: the successful sonic evolution of one of the most consistently interesting bands in the world today.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Everything but the kitchen sink !, 29 Jun 2008
Those seeking a minimalist musical experience then this is not for you. The band and producer appear to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into the mix including heavenly choirs, massed orchestral ranks on top of the usual rock instruments and vocals.
I've played the album a number of times now and it's been a slow burner.The usual mix of sombre slow ballads and stirring anthems. Some of these anthems a bit OTT if you ask me and nothing that stands out and grabs you or makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
There were stages when that falsetto voice started to grate and I wondered...'are these brilliant or are they a case of the emperors new clothes?'.
At the moment it doesn't feel like a disc that will sit on the top of my pile for months. More an album that will shoved on the shelf with the rest of the 'S's' in a week or two.
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18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Build Your Own Paradise, 16 Jun 2008
In the year Sigur Ros released their first album "Von", it sold 313 copies. Things have changed a lot in the past decade, and yet, they haven't. Their records are round and they play instruments, but that's about all they have in common with anyone. Their songs still have unique titles, their albums have unwieldy names, their artwork is still uniquely individual : the cover of this sums up the record in an instant : naked men and women running across a road, breaking with convention - not because it is an act of rebellion, but because it is what the heart feels is true.
From the off, Sigur Ros have never been so accessable, and yet it is still, utterly and completely filled with the trademarks of their sound : ascending rhythms, vistas of strings, ethereal otherworldly vocals that soar and elevate, music that eschews the convention of verse / chorus / guitar solo in favour of a unfolding panorama of invention. Sure, all this flowery language is so very 1986-NME-Cocteau-Twins, but then again, about the only thing that is familiar about this record is that you can buy it in shops.
Starting with the rampaging crescendo is "Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysinger" (rough transalation : "I have no idea what this means"), "Meo Suo I Eyrum..." is very possibly the greatest Sigur Ros record yet. It opens like a weird James hit single, then within 17 seconds takes an abrupt left turn into a fluffy Jesus & Mary Chain with a vast chorus. This record hints at a world yet unseen, touches upon the vast possibilities, takes the promises of other music, and leaves them all in the dust. You thought Radiohead were weird? Compared to Sigur Ros, Radiohead are Take That.
The first half of the record is vibrant, uplifting, all drums and choruses and massive swathes of indistinct angels trilling in your ears. The second half is quieter, more reflective, introspective half-seen glimpses of songs, an alien lullaby, or an insomniac sunset seen from the window of a transatlantic jetliner.
In fact, words are pretty much redundant to explain the intricate and unique world this record creates. Unlike any other music I've heard. Sigur Ros is immersive. It's the sound of music you hear on the stairs when two different records are playing at the same time, and you heard a new third, impossible song - and that is Sigur Ros, a world underneath your fingertips you didn't know existed. And its also the closest thing Sigur Ros have ever come to a conventional pop music : at times ("Ara Batur") it sounds like something Coldplay and Brian Eno would reject as far-too-weird. In one respect, Sigur Ros music is a blank canvas - there is no `meaning' except that we make ourselves, no interpretation but that we add. Every listener, every reader, everyone who's ever seen a film brings with them, unwitting or not, their baggage, their interpretation, their world, and creates something that is what the author intended but also, far far more than that. Sigur Ros music is impressionistic, foggy, a musical Rosharch Inkblot Test that provides the listener to create their own paradise and get lost in that forever.
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