The picture on the cover of Sigur Ros’ latest effort must be a sign post. The Icelandic group reached notoriety with an untitled album typically called () which featured prominently in the Tom Cruise film Vanilla Sky. Ever since the band has become associated with dramatic, ambient songs that are far too often compared with Iceland’s glacial landscape. The photograph of those pale-skinned young men streaking across a sunny highway could wipe away the threat of most things ‘glacial’.
From the opening track “Gobbledigook” it is clear that the band has used the sidesteps on their last album Takk as a springboard for a much more joyous sound. ”Gobbledigook” eludes genre description with its double-time drum bombast, coupled with staccato acoustic guitar playing. It flows seamlessly into “Inni…” which takes the playfulness of the opening track and expands it to orchestral heights.
The shorter tracks (3:00-4:00) are another departure from the group’s past. Replacing their typical approach of: start at a moody hush and slowly crescendo into melodramatic explosion- with a welcome sense of economy. Still, it wouldn’t be a Sigur Ros record without a nine minute epic and “Festival” fills in that role. By no means a mediocre track, it only feels weak as a retread into methods they may have exhausted.
The majority of the record is sung in Icelandic, which forces most listeners to absorb the emotional weight of the vocals with delivery and instrumentation being the only tools available to decipher the song’s meaning. While this tends to file the songs into two columns: an introspective sense of need, or an irrepressible feeling of glee, one can easily supply their own topics. For example, as a non-Icelandic speaking listener I can only assume that “Ara Batur” details singer Jon Birgisson’s flight from Reykjavik to Frankfurt, the impressive cloud formations out the window and the flight attendant’s timely delivery of an excellent wine. Heartbreak might be a more popular interpretation, but that’s up to you..
Med sud… is a stunning listen. In spite of a couple navel-gazing duds the album is full of artfully wrought melodies and textures. With a little more sunshine inspired streaking Sigur Ros can only keep giving us impressive sounds to make up stories for.
****
