Onze laatste liverecensie.
Onze laatste albumrecensie.
Ons laatste interview.
Onze laatste video.
Sigur Rós isn't a band that could've been made up at a drawing table in a marketing office. Because, what's the logic of an Icelandic band, with lyrics sung in their own language by an extremely high-voiced and shy boy, becoming very popular? Hearing their previous album Ágætis Byrjun is when, all of a sudden, it becomes logical. The voice of Jónsi should be considered as an added musical instrument, and most of the dreamy sound is due to his stroking the electric guitar with a bow. The unique, and hence incomparable, atmosphere of Sigur Rós has given them a lot of attention and appreciation, supported by the successful singles 'Ny Batteró' and 'Svefn-G-Englar.' The latter had a video with gay boys playing soccer, but was never shown on Icelandic television due its being judged as too provocative. A sort of breakthrough in America occurred when their best song, 'Stárálfur,' was placed in the Vanilla Sky movie.
The reason why they called the new album ( ) is because they want everyone to fill in their own feeling they get when listening to the album. The album is an ego document for everyone who listens to it, and the band doesn't want to give any direction to that. But, of course, the music speaks for itself, which is very helpful because the songs also don't have any titles. Well, in the studio or at live gigs, they use working titles, but they don't have anything to do with the song itself. ( ) is, once again, full of dreamy, stretched-out melodies most of the time, working towards a climax. Song #1 exhibits Jónsi's hard-to-believe ability to sing even higher than ever before, so it's just like he's imitating a mosquito. The climaxes used aren't the same as the ones on Ágætis, because, on that album, the volume and the gathering of all sounds were the main factors. On ( ), the climax can be a completely different sound. Song #4, for instance (also the convincing highlight of the album), all of a sudden fades out and becomes a melodic tune on the keyboard — somewhere in the neighbourhood of a piano sound. Jónsi keeps on singing the same line over and over, but the reason that you can't understand what he sings is also part of the main focus, being that the sounds should do the work. The thing is that he sings in his own, made-up language, called Hopelandic. In the past, he's done it to some extent, but most of the lyrics were in Icelandic. But just as the song titles can give direction to your thoughts about the music, so could his own language. So instead of singing about something, his voice is a part of the whole, responsible for the created Sigur Rós universe. A universe that isn't accessible for the impatient visitor, because a ten-minute song is a very regular thing for the band. And also, a universe that is peaceful and threatening at the same time. And the thunder really breaks loose at the end of the final song, #8, which they also refer to as 'The Pop Song.' While drummer Orri already gives a signal that something really big is going to happen — and so it does — the music finishes with a Godspeed-like explosion, with such intensity that it leaves the listener behind in astonishment, but most of all with a lot of satisfaction. ( ) is a masterpiece. Something you can write down in the CD booklet, which is empty for you to write about what you think you hear. And I hope you hear the same things I do.
http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/sigur-ros/2008/2008/
Meer Sigur Rós op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/sigur-ros
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