Sigur Ros is one of those rare bands that distinguish themselves by sounding like absolutely no one else. It’s refreshing given that at any particular point in time there are hoards of bands that wear influences on their sleeve and cash in on very particular and popular sounds. We are lucky to have a new album from this now iconic band, especially given all the rumors that they had broken up. As it happens their keyboard player Kjartan Sveinsson has left the band and all the lush orchestrations he engineered on the albums they recorded for EMI is now largely absent.
The band featured on Kveikur has now been whittled down to a more elemental rock outfit that has smoothed out the sweeping emotional highs and desperate crashing lows that once took us on wild emotional roller coaster rides to give us an album of dreamy glittering pop. Jonsi’s ecstatic falsetto continues to float through their music and on this album it becomes the focus of the mix. There was a time when it seemed that Coldplay were emulating Sigur Ros, situating somewhat ethereal orchestrations in their obvious pop maneuvers. Ironically, Rafstraumur and many other songs on this album finds Sigur Ros shifting to crafting majestic pop that edges itself into Coldplay territory. Despite what fans of albums like Agaetis Byrjun may think Sigur Ros continue to find a path towards the spiritual in their music. Kveikur feels like a new beginning for our favorite band from Iceland.
BY THE SIDEMAN
Best Track: Rafstraumur
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: JULIANA BARWICK, ELUVIUM, IASOS, OLAFUR ARNALDS
In A Word: Majestic
