The thread to anticipate and discuss the new Sigur Ros album "Takk..."

Personally I've decided I'm not peeking until I unwrap the album and I have it in my hands in Septmember. In 2002 I had major overload of the songs before the last album even came out.

The first single ("Glossoli") comes out in August. I believe it's a download.

http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk/images/takk-cover.jpg

Any thoughts from anyone who's heard it already?

Music can be so good. Why waste time on this stuff?

(the videoclip for Glósóli)

It's this kind of rubbish that pisses me off. Every time there's a discussion about Sigur Ros someone has to go in and say something like they're wimpy or they're boring or they're posers or they rip off Radiohead (what the jeff?!!?).

How are they wimpy? Sure a lot of it is fairly quiet but no quieter than a lot of other bands in their bracket. Is it because the guy sings in a high voice and they're scared of that? I don't get this. I'm not normally swayed by other people's opinions on music but it's because I only listen to Sigur Ros occasionally then read stuff like this that I forget they're a fucking good band.

You are referring to their second album, not their first....

Now see, I AGREE with this sentiment, but because they make (or at least DID make up until this album) some of the most pleasingly extra-terrestrial music available on Earth.

http://www.myspace.com/sigurros

It's their most immediate and accessible album to date. Better vocals and less vocal repetition than on (). I say HIT.

Deception is actually a good word to describe the thing that is Sigur Rós, imo. Some people do a great job at making them look really great on paper---but what we get is another deal. I find that what bothers me most about them is that their songs are irresolute (the chord progressions never really seem to go anywhere). Half-baked and lazy semi-melodies are adorned with florid arrangements that seem aesthetically incongruent with the "outerspace" sound they're so constantly described as having. Jonsi has a very forceful voice, and the bowed guitar is nice as are other pretty details in their setup --- it makes it almost hard to realize how boring the songs really are.

Wimpy? Yes. Where is the dissonance? Where are the shadows? (abuse of major keys --- why does the painting have to be solely in pastels?) Why do the string arrangements have to resort to mawkish schmaltz to evoke emotion? Why the chordal aimlessness?

More than a few parts sounded like the Hopelandic Coldplay to me.

Yup. But this novel development is actually pretty sweet!

That said, in the 'I am amused' department, two flacks on the NRO website were talking about being fans of theirs today, with one saying, "It's like Enya if Enya were rock."

But also songs which are pompously, simplistically overblown. And I do think the vocals can be a little forced/affected.

I know you have this big Ziggy Ross antipathy, Ned, I just can't grasp why you feel they're bland as opposed to other dreamscapemongers.

I get what you're saying about the deliberate drama but I'm just a total sucker for it. Falsetto + gibberish + big fricking drums. They use feedback and sheets of sound really juicily and as I said above, brass instruments ohmygod. I can kinda see the objections but they bypass my rationality and tickle my guts every time.

'Evasnescent' is the word (nothing to do with "Bring Me to Life") -- all that is solid melts into air. A combination of slow pace, deliberation forced to the point of dullness, using sounds I normally thrill to in a way that reduces all their joy, their impact...it's a mix of things, and the net effect is to leave me thinking that there's no THERE there.

I once described Bardo Pond as being a group that sounded like they were struck agog by their own majesty, an imperial procession that overwhelmed itself. That's a positive assessment, very much -- Sigur Ros should theoretically have this in spades. But they are just so tedious, and this album didn't change my mind one bit.

Strangely enough, Ned and I have opposite views of Bardo Pond as well ... if there's any word I wouldn't assign that band, it's "majesty". They've always struck me as a band too stoned to be struck agog by anything other than their own fingernails (and I say that as a big fan as well).

Just streaming this (yay! broadband at last) and while it is beautiful, not 'bland' musically to me, actually fairly pleasant & enervating and sometimes unexpected (not your average post-rock stuff). The emotional uplift, for want of a better description, I mean... why so straight and OBVIOUS?

I suppose some people must dig this, find it frill-free, direct, 'pure' or something. But I miss being taken on any sort of journey. I feel like I'm missing something period. And it begins to piss me off very quickly despite the music being frequently luscious. I like "Seaglopur" best from this collection I think.

Maybe I might like Ageist Brian or () better... or maybe Untitled #1 really is all I'd ever need by this band after all.

But have always found it very, very hard to justify purchasing a CD blind with so much other stuff around when such doubts linger around. And perhaps they aren't the kind of act I can make snap decisions on based on one or two songs, which is why I've hesitated to dismiss them fully already.

I think Takk is great, but definitely think of it more in a pop genre with Coldplay and Radiohead than next to Explosions in the Sky or Gorecki o, uh, Mingus.

College kids LOVE to have sex to Sigue Ros.

and the album cover only confirms my desire to see jonsi choked w/ his own intestines.

It's is shamelessly obvious & dumb (major keys whatever), but you know what? They're good at this symphonic-esque stuff. It's not groundbreaking by any means, and the tricks are familiar, but still oddly welcome.

It hasn't really turned me into an uber-fan but it's great chill-out music (does anyone think "Svefn-g-englar" bears a slight resembelance to Air's "La Femme D'Argent" though??). Perhaps because it is so light & emotionally uncomplicated. My first smooth jazz record! I must be getting old :-)

If there are niggles it's that when there are transportative moments which hit a bit deeper, they kind of flicker & die very, very quickly. I still feel like I haven't played this LOUD enough yet. Perhaps I might get closer to the usual feelings about this band (as expressed by sean gramophone above) The depth does feel kind of superficial on some intangible level, but I'm glad I heard it finally. This and perhaps the Glosoli, and Untitled #1/9 singles might be all I ever need by them though.

As for the other bit, well it is very happy music isn't it? Not in a poptacular way, by totally different means. But it's very comforting (in a good way I think).

Are the extra discs on the various versions of the Rice Boy Sleeps album any good?

No-one heard these?