I’m not really sure what is left to be said about Sigur Rós after all these years. They’ve been successfully treading the same waters from day one, with only the slightest changes in direction from one album to the next. It seems the key to their success has been getting people to their shows to experience them live, which most times is a really enjoyable time. I’m not one that goes completely batshit crazy for their live shows. As much as I really enjoy their music, it isn’t transcendent for me as it seems to be for so many people. A close friend of mine even had their music playing while she delivered her first child – that’s how Sigur Rós’s music can effect people. I understand it, but I don’t feel it that way, as great as I do think they are. I used to go see them pretty much every time they came to town, including opening for fellow Icelander Björk in Brooklyn for two shows, and the first time being just a few days after 9/11 at Berklee in Boston touring in support of the Ágætis Byrjun album. As you can imagine, if you know this band and know that album, It’s easy to say that was definitely an emotional show. Prior to this album the band put out the album Valtari, and as much as it was cool they were putting out something that was truly an ambient recording relatively (instead of people just lazily calling all their music ambient), I found it to be very dull. Ambient albums can easily be gorgeous and memorable and even catchy as hell, but Valtari was far from any of those descriptions. I still went to see them on tour, again in Brooklyn, with my dear friend Meredith, and for the first time I was completely unimpressed. I came to the conclusion I still liked them of course, I respected them immensely, but it seemed their time had come, they had run out of ideas, run out of songs, and it was time to no longer invest energy with them. That was that. Then came word another album was coming out, and my level of disinterest could not have been any higher. But then word came that one member had departed, and they were in turn taking the band in a different direction, in a more “aggressive” direction. Sigur Rós had done “aggressive” before, but they had never described their music as such as best to my knowledge, so for them to say that is where they were headed, I thought this could be interesting. The lead single and video for ´Brennistein´ was then released and boy where they not kidding. The song was bordering on industrial, heavy, almost violent in nature – and the accompanying video was downright sinister in it’s mix of colors, mostly black. Bordering on scary, it’s one hell of a song – and it was exciting to see this band not only branch out, and completely reverse course from their last album, but also just to let loose in a sense – to see a different side of this band, one they seemed ready to fully embrace. Then in late March the band performed the album title track on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the first time they performed on American television in 10 years, and that settled it, this album was going to be fantastic. And it is. One of it’s biggest strengths is that only parts of the album are what can be considered aggressive. The rest is the Sigur Rós you already know. They didn’t overkill on this album, they simply added to their mix, and let the few aggressive tracks compliment seamlessly what they already do best. And frankly the sound of the past on tracks like ‘Stormur’, and especially ‘Ísjaki‘ (which represents the entirety of this album perfectly), are in my view examples of them at the peak of their career. And to mix in this new side of the band, I find this to be their second best album, right behind their sophomore (and to some their “proper” debut) Ágætis Byrjun. The album is much grittier for them. Not in production, but in the overall vibe, yet it’s more beautiful and focused than ever before. It feels like a complete album, one where the balance in moods was thought out and sequenced instead of slapping together a bunch of great songs. This feels like a complete work. It’s incredible to me this band has taken off on a global scale like they have. At it’s core, this is pop music, but it’s very unconventional, completely non-mainstream, where they sing not only in their native Icelandic but mostly in a completely made up language they call Hopelandic, and yet they sell out stadiums all across the globe. They can be uplifting one moment, and ominous the next, and I think that range of emotions and sincerity is what brings people to them. It’s an astounding thing really, and to see them come full circle like they have here with this album is an exciting thing, and now that it’s happened, it’s going to be even more interesting to see where they take themselves on the next album. When a band does the unexpected, what are we supposed to expect next? However if this is the end, it’s a fine closing chapter. An exceptional album.