VON

While I did find a little more to listen to on Von than Bryan Adair, I concur with his overall conclusion that this is an album only for the real SIGUR ROS fan who is interested in seeing just how much the band has changed. To me, it's absolutely incredible that they were able to follow this with the absolutely spotless, sweeping, symphonic Agaetis Byrjun...because this poorly-produced, slapped-together seeming album could well have sunk the band, and is really more of a 1.5 than the 2 I gave it.

Had I been listening to Von with no knowledge of what was to come...to be honest, I would have either expected the band to fall into obscurity except for its native Iceland--and if it did have a breakthrough, for it to be in the poppier vein of "Hún Jörð" or "Myrkur", the latter of which has serious shades of RADIOHEAD. "Myrkur", almost alone among SIGUR ROS' songs, actually has lyrics that you can sing to if you pay attention and follow the lyrics booklet (yes, this one actually came with lyrics!)--even if you don't know Icelandic. "Von" itself also avoids excess and becomes a likeable song, with some pretty vocals from JONSI BIRGISON.

Overall, this is more of an ambient collection than a serious musical album. Tracks like the opening "Sigur Rós" and "Haffsól" have a great atmosphere at times, but then they run on too long for their own good and often fall apart at the end, ruining the ambience they have created. Other, somewhat shorter tracks like "Veröld Ný Og Óð" (which I personally liked) are also in the ambient vein. This percussion piece would probably satisfy people who enjoyed "Convergence" on RADIOHEAD composer JONNY GREENWOOD's solo album Bodysong, although I think the latter piece is more satisfying. Other tracks are a complete, pretentious disaster, most especially "Rukrym", which is something like six minutes of dead silence and then "Myrkur" run backwards...and most especially "18 Sekúndur Fyrir Sólarupprás"--which if I am reading that properly, seems to mean "18 Seconds for Sunrise"...and I believe it's 18 seconds of silence! I can't even remember properly because there was so little to cling to.

While I can't give this a 1, this album will probably try the patience of even a dedicated SIGUR ROS fan, and only the serious fans should get this one--as a historical piece.