TAKK...

If I was highly impressed with the previous unnamed album, I must recognize that I am rather disappointed with this one. A superb and lavish, highly luxurious artwork sleeve had more than piqued my curiosity, and everything suggested that this was going to be a masterpiece.

While hardly a bad album, we are in for a repeat album of the previous with its rather difficult singing and incomprehensible lyric (Hopelandic), but with an added irritating twist. If you take away the vocal parts, this album sounds A LOT to GYBE! And this is more than an impression, too. The still slow-paced tracks still have a very melancholic feel (so typical of Northern or Scandinavian Europe) and a eerie beauty, but unfortunately, I feel that there is a certain step backwards with this album, and clearly when the whole group is playing at full volume (this is NOT a metal group, though), these guys sound a lot like the Montrealers and most other groups that are starting to crowd in that now too-used formula of Post-Rock. BTW: if I compare most post-rock groups to GYBE!, it is mainly because the nonet first pioneered this "sound" and influenced all of the others.

Don't get me wrong here, not everything is borrowed (far from it) on this album, and there are plenty of moments where you find the "old" Sigur, in fine form. But as I said above, the surprise and expectation raised after ( ), probably proved too much for this Icelandic trio to live up to. Still a good album, though. But not great!!!