Sigur Rós, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust

The quartet from Iceland is back with their fifth full-length album. In an attempt to shake up the norm, this time Sigur Rós decided to solicit the help of Flood, producer of albums for Nine Inch Nails, PJ Harvey, and Smashing Pumpkins. Obviously the boys desire something different, but c’mon, can you get any more different than what Iceland has to offer?

The first two songs are drastically different from the music on the group’s previous four albums. If it wasn’t for Jón Birgisson’s falsetto vocals, I might think that I’d put in the wrong CD. Everything has been stripped down; what used to be layer after layer of sounds and melodies has been focused into a single idea, a single concept. It’s raw and unpolished. Take the opening track “Gobbledigook,” which lacks a single synthetic sound — no longer is the band’s music put through filters and run across a litany of effects. Instead, you hear the sounds of fingers running up and down the frets or the squeak of the bass drum pedal as Orri Páll Dýrason creates a rhythmic chant on his kit. Most bands strive to take out the “noise” when creating music, but it seems as if Sigur Rós amplified the sounds, knowing it would be another instrument. Have the synthesizers and orchestra nearly been packed up on this album? It’s so drastically different, not just in sound but in the mood of the music. From an emotional standpoint, Ágætis Byrjun sounded more reverent, while Taak… was uplifting, almost redemptive. Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust is joyous and innocent, a child’s summer day compared to Ágætis Byrjun‘s eulogy…or so it would seem.

This drastic transformation quickly shifts after the first two songs. While for the first two the orchestral instruments and synthesizers have taken a backseat to the piano and guitar, things switch around; the streamlined sound created in the opening of Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust still remains, but the overall feel of the remaining songs is more reminiscent of the Sigur Rós of old. Songs like “Með suð í eyrum” and “Festival” really display what made Sigur Rós famous: sweeping melodies that beautifully build on one another until we’re engulfed in sound. “All Alright,” their first English song, and “Straumnes” end the album in familiar Sigur Rós fashion, with a slow and deliberate piano piece followed by a hauntingly simple organ instrumental song.

This is the problem with Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust — for all the creative effort and genius required to write and play the first two songs, the rest of the album becomes too safe. Rather than explore the tone set by the first two songs, the band seems content to make another “Sigur Rós album.” I’ve grown to adore Sigur Rós and I feel their latest LP is absolutely fantastic. I do feel a bit disappointed, however, and I’m left wondering what could have been.