MEÐ SUÐ Í EYRUM VIÐ SPILUM ENDALAUST

Sigur Rós had me concerned: their new album had a title I could nowhere near pronounce correctly and cover art featuring naked people, not to mention a music video for the album's first single that was rife with nudity. As an American, I am supposed to frown upon that, and since I am a shameless patriot, I frowned upon it. As a fan of music and art, I was able to approach this with a more open mind, however, and I quickly realized that the art was undeniably fitting for the release. Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust continues the band's evolution toward a more organic and poppy sound. Much like the folks on the cover, the band's sound is stripped down. It is largely acoustic-based, hardly featuring any of the rich layers of sound the band has been known and loved for. It is also noteworthy that this album features 11 tracks and clocks in at a mere 55 minutes.

All of these elements might invoke worry in fans, but one listen through "Gobbledigook," and I think we can agree that the band made it work. The aforementioned is a rompin'-stompin' 3 minute tune with hooks galore unlike anything the band has done before. Who knew that Sigur could function so well at such a high tempo? The opener and pilot single easily finds a spot among the band's best tracks, and it is certainly the most fun. Before you have time to verify the reality of what you just heard, the boys throw another funfest at you with "Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur." We're just having so much fun right now! In fact, we may be having too much fun. Hence, "Góðan Daginn" sitting at track three brings things back down into more familiar territory, but it conforms to the new sound very nicely. We hear some of that reverb & delay heavy electric guitar in the back of the mix, but the band makes sure to stress the acoustic instrumentation over everything else. The band brings the tempo back up for the half-title track, "Við Spilum Endalaust." A little less energetic maybe, but nevertheless a very fun tune continuing a fresh, fun and flawless album.

But the unthinkable happens: the thinkable happens. Yes, the band looks back at track five to their past glory and tries to render a new version of their old style. "Festival," beautiful as it may be, is a slow, drawn out harkening of the minimalist epic music they are known for. Considering the name of this song, both invoking thoughts of happiness & good times and starting with the letter 'f,' you would think it wouldn't negate the three f's from earler: fresh, fun and flawless. But alas, it does. I'm ok with them hinting at their signature sound, but the song definitely did not need to be over 9 minutes long. The album was working out nicely as an immediate, direct and well-paced record and from track 5 on the band starts to lose a lot of steam. Despite continuing to have great melodies & emotion and good application of the organic sound, even using a huge orchestra and boys choir on "Ára Bátur," the album proves to be ill-paced in the second half. The band put a bunch of energy into the beginning and left us for a completely downtempo second half. They could have thrown another funfest or relatively uptempo song somewhere around track 8 or 9. What's also pretty humorous is that the band was all excited for their first song in English, which is the closer "All Alright," but you can still hardly decipher any of the words. You'll also develop a rule of thumb about this record, where the harder it is to pronounce the song title or the funner the name is to pronounce, the better the song is.

In conclusion, forward-thinking fans will appreciate the new sound, where melodic instruments are used for actual leads & melodies, tempos above 100 BPMs are explored more often than ever, the mood is actually cheery, and atmospheres, while still being strong, are very organic. The melodies are really strong throughout and "Gobbledigook" practically makes the album worth buying buy itself. The song is simply so fun and so short that I must repeat it at least once every time I put the album on. I never thought I would be able to do that with a Sigur song. Please, at the very least try not to strip and go running around enjoying nature like the band may influence you to do. If the temptation is too hard to resist (can't say I blame you), I would recommend you do it in Iceland; there are a lot of gorgeous sights, there aren't too many people around, and those people probably won't think you're crazy or depraved. Also, if you go, remember to wear shoes like the people on the cover. You will destory your feet otherwise. You might argue that you can develop calluses, but who wants to see or touch your dirty, callused feet? That's just gross.