Love or Hate?

Trollheart · 12-10-2015, 02:27 PM

Title: ()
Artiste: Sigur Ros
Genre: Post-Rock, Instrumental
Familiarity: I've heard a few of their albums. Was very taken with Takk...
Recommended by: bob

Expectations: Greatness. A tour de force. Nothing else is expected or will be accepted.

1. Vaka: What a conundrum this presents for the reviewer! No title and all eight tracks untitled! Luckily, sanity prevails and there are alternate titles for each track, which I will use now. Nice slow start on this one, mostly piano with some effects. Getting stronger now as violin slides in, now some vocal, which I'm told is sung in a madeup language, not that it would make any difference to me as I can't understand Icelandic anyway. Very sad , kind of lamenting vocal. Really nice.
2. Fyrsta: Another soft, ethereal, gorgeous little piece, with a lovely vocal.
3. Samskeyti: Beautiful piano and I think glockenspiel here, sounds like it may be an instrumental. Much of this is like listening almost to the one piece of music (in a very good way) or the movements of a symphony. It really does flow together so well. Getting stronger now as it nears the end.
4. Njósnavélin : A little more powerful, nice guitar with some fine organ
5. Álafoss : There's a darker feel to this, sense of loss, slow but more downbeat with a somewhat yearning vocal. Percussion is really effective here. Love the buildup near the end.
6. E-Bow: Another stunning track, with a real sense of desolation in it. Great vocal. The use of the e-bow on the bass is particularly evocative.
7. Dauðalagið : Longest track at over thirteen minutes. Takes a long time to get going (like, third minute or so) but really hits the spot when it does. Very ominous, dramatic feel to it, builds as it goes, kind of Floydian in places. Again the percussion really adds to this at certain points, and at others it's perfect without any.
8. Popplagið : Lovely acoustic guitar opening. Again the percussion plays a really important role in building the tension and suspense in the track.

End result: Sure they're above criticism really, aren't they? Once you get into Sigur Ros it's kind of hard to say anything bad about them.

So, Love or Hate?It could really only be True Love, obviously.

12-10-2015, 02:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,996	Title: () Artiste: Sigur Ros Genre: Post-Rock, Instrumental Familiarity: I've heard a few of their albums. Was very taken with Takk... Recommended by: bob Expectations: Greatness. A tour de force. Nothing else is expected or will be accepted. 1. Vaka: What a conundrum this presents for the reviewer! No title and all eight tracks untitled! Luckily, sanity prevails and there are alternate titles for each track, which I will use now. Nice slow start on this one, mostly piano with some effects. Getting stronger now as violin slides in, now some vocal, which I'm told is sung in a madeup language, not that it would make any difference to me as I can't understand Icelandic anyway. Very sad , kind of lamenting vocal. Really nice. 2. Fyrsta: Another soft, ethereal, gorgeous little piece, with a lovely vocal. 3. Samskeyti: Beautiful piano and I think glockenspiel here, sounds like it may be an instrumental. Much of this is like listening almost to the one piece of music (in a very good way) or the movements of a symphony. It really does flow together so well. Getting stronger now as it nears the end. 4. Njósnavélin : A little more powerful, nice guitar with some fine organ 5. Álafoss : There's a darker feel to this, sense of loss, slow but more downbeat with a somewhat yearning vocal. Percussion is really effective here. Love the buildup near the end. 6. E-Bow: Another stunning track, with a real sense of desolation in it. Great vocal. The use of the e-bow on the bass is particularly evocative. 7. Dauðalagið : Longest track at over thirteen minutes. Takes a long time to get going (like, third minute or so) but really hits the spot when it does. Very ominous, dramatic feel to it, builds as it goes, kind of Floydian in places. Again the percussion really adds to this at certain points, and at others it's perfect without any. 8. Popplagið : Lovely acoustic guitar opening. Again the percussion plays a really important role in building the tension and suspense in the track. End result: Sure they're above criticism really, aren't they? Once you get into Sigur Ros it's kind of hard to say anything bad about them. So, Love or Hate?It could really only be True Love, obviously. __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018