#487 Sigus Ros - Von

Did you know that Sigur Ros had an album before Ágætis byrjun? This news flash brought to you by the makers of Dookie and Tragic Kingdom.

If the Pitchforks of the world had gotten wind of this when it came out, would they have seen it as the work of a band about to take the world by storm? It has much of the epic scope of its breakthrough predecessor, and in some places it's actually more wild and natural somehow. It evokes the empty, shimmering expanses of Iceland no less effectively, and layers its vocals nearly as perfectly.

Nearly. It often reads as post rock or Lovelessesque shoegaze (especially on Myrkur), and rarely quite transcends music the way the best tracks on Ágætis seemed to. The long soundscapes are undeniably adventurous, sounding like wind and moving plates and auroras themselves (see Hafssyl for hints of the Sigur Ros to come), if a bit indulgent and slow.

Here we see the pre-fetal form of Ágætis's cover alien baby, still luminescent and uncanny, but before its fingers and toes began to form, before it truly began to kick. Not nothing that* 4/5

You might like this if: you have patience for slowly unwinding songs, some that never quite unwind but melt, and want to hear the origins of some of the most unusual (if a bit overrated, if I'm being honest) music of the aughts.

* no pro-life subtext intended