Album #63 : Sigur Ros - Takk...

Sigur Ros

Takk... (2005)

Thanks to Bjork, Sigur Ros are probably Iceland's second biggest musical product (yes, I rank them ahead of The Sugarcubes and that godawful collective Of Monsters and Men). They have been at the forefront of the post-rock movement for most of their career, and while their sound has undergone subtle changes over the course of that career, they have always produced a sound that is sweeping, grand, evocative and ethereal. Acting as another point of differentiation from other post-rock groups is that vocals tend to play a greater role in their music. 

However, these vocals are either in Icelandic or Vonlenska (Hopelandic), a strange gibberish based on Icelandic. They are also normally delivered by vocalist/guitarist Jonsi in an angelic falsetto.

Takk...(Thanks...) was their fourth studio album. Unlike the brillant ( ), which preceded it, this album featured more Icelandic and less Hopelandic. It also happens to be where I'm up to in my Discover The Sounds Of Sigur Ros Adventure.

Prepare yourselves for a trip into the world of Sigur Ros....

The Album

Holy. Shit.

This is beyond post-rock music. 

This is classical music for the modern age.

All of the typical Sigur Ros trademarks are present - Jonsi's haunting falsetto, the bowed guitars, the angelic, soul-warming strings and keyboards, and the general sense of peaceful grandeur of the arrangements. Yet here on Takk..., the group adds a few sensibilities that are found in pop and progressive rock, as well as refining their shifts in sonic intensity. Those sensibilities enhance the Sigur Ros experience at times.

Hoppipolla (and its immediate followup/continuation, Með blóðnasir) are proof positive of this. A piano provides a melody that is built upon with ethereal strings and keys, the rhythms are simple and the vocals, in Hopelandic, sweet and serene. All this is wrapped up in four minutes in what is essentially a post-rock pop song; it uses some typical pop structures but shrouds them all in beauty.

Of the tracks with the more progressive tinges to them, it can be said that they make Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound seem like a couple of loosely arranged bricks. Songs like Glisoli, Svo hljott, Saeglopur and Milano, while all very different, have some common threads; firstly, they sound absolutely monstrous, with their densely layered sounds; secondly, they feature repeated 'chorus' like moments, where there's an explosion of sound (usually led by the drums and bass); and thirdly, the guitar has greater prominence (even if it's never the dominant instrument). All four are great but it's probably the latter three that are the most outstanding ones, with Milano and Svo hljott vying for best track on the album.

Elsewhere, the sounds are a little closer to 'traditional' Sigur Ros. Se lest is a lullaby song for music hipster parents. I do not mean that as a pejorative; it is a serene, peaceful, string-heavy masterpiece that is as beautiful and calming as any lullaby, and it's the sort of thing that music hipsters like myself would play for their baby just so they could say, "HMM WELL MY CHILD GOES TO SLEEP LISTENING TO SIGUR ROS FNEEEERRRRRRR". It even features an inexplicable, but interesting, circus music waltz section. Closing track Heysatan (it's Icelandic for 'the haystack', not HEY SATAN as I first hoped/feared) is a typical ballad, with no drums, a somewhat prominent horn section and Jonsi harmonising with himself. Very, very pretty song. Gong is more straight rock than prog, with drums playing a major role (drummer Orri Páll Dýrason does a fine job on this album) and traditional rock instrumentation being at the forefront. Finally, Andvari is notable for its very odd time signatures, but little else.

Is it perfect? Not quite. Personally, I do feel as though the two previous albums, ( ) and Ágætis byrjun, are more complete, thematic works of art, whereas this feels more like a collection of songs. They're great songs, sure, but it's not quite reaching the same heights as those earlier works. There are also a small handful of flat moments here, particularly Andvari, which is nice, and certainly interesting/impressive from a songwriting point of view, but doesn't have a great deal going on.

But they are very small nits on a very large bear.

The Verdict

Stunning in its composition, its performance and its scope, Takk... is a simply beautiful album from a band that are masters in making beautiful albums. It's the sort of album you can put on through headphones, lie in a darkened room and just lose yourself in, allowing the music to carry you away. 

Probably to some volcanic hill in Iceland, near an abandoned swimming pool......

Highly recommended.

My rating: **** and a half

Standout Tracks

Milano

Svo hljott

Hoppipolla/Með blóðnasir

Tomorrow sees another wife selection, this time by a band whose debut was OMGPOPTASTIC, full of Fox/Nova cheap pop gags wrapped up in synthy pop. The joke was on everyone else, because they then revealed themselves to be a psychedelic synthprog band....

I'm reviewing the OMGPOPTASTIC debut tomorrow, but will talk briefly about the band's evolution and the totally hilarious reaction of pop music fan douchebags to said evolution.