Inspired by the unfettered feeling of the acoustic performances filmed during Heima, Sigur Rós
adopted a looser approach in creating their fifth album Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust.
The album consequently is fresher and more human than anything they ve previously
recorded.
Rough edges, cracked notes, and the sound of fingers on strings are audible resulting in tracks
(e.g. Íllgresi ) that prove to be the band's sparsest and most affecting work to date. Worry not
though, plenty of electric guitar can be heard throughout the album ensuring Sigur Rós
commitment to challenging sonic limitations.
Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust is truly a groundbreaking album for Sigur Rós. It s the
first time they ve attempted to write, record, mix, release and support (by touring) an album in
the same year. Notoriously known for their laborious writing/recording style and their Icelandic
roots, Sigur Rós decided to record an album outside of Iceland for the first time. Recording,
mixing and mastering sessions took place in such un-Reykjavik cities as New York (Sear
Sound and Sterling Sound), London (Abbey Road and Assault & Battery) and Havana. The
result is pretty much their leave home album, the anti-Heima.
The opening track, Gobbledigook , is a manifesto setter with its shifting/no time signature. On
the last track, All Alright , Sigur Rós find themselves singing a song solely in English for the
first time. The seventh track, Ára Bátur , was performed with a full orchestra and the London
Oratory Boys Choir. This was recorded in one take with no overdubs and the result was 90
people playing at once and just one perfect take. This is their first album working with Flood
(U2, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey) and the first since their debut to not be recorded with Ken
Thomas. It was a true co-production, one that found Sigur Rós breaking out of old
molds/habits.
The cover artwork is a photo taken from a flyer for Ryan McGinley s most recent photo
exhibition in NYC, I Know Where the Summer Goes , and the image captures perfectly the
spirit of the album, one of free-spirited happiness and exploration.
The band will be touring the US throughout the fall of 2008 to support Med Sud I Eyrum Vid
Spilum Endalaust.

Customer Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Incredible
Comment: This new, more acoustic, style is fresh and uplifting. Really a great CD. Sigur Ros continues to be amazing.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Soft and Uhhh, not in English!
Comment: amazon.com kept putting this band in my recommended section, so i bought it. then i wondered if i was going insane or whether the dude's english was just really bad. he was speaking icelandic! what the hell? i need to have an idea what the heck they are saying, without having to learn some obscure new language. it is also a little too soft for my taste. i mean, the band has some neat arrangements, obviously they have talent, but the foreign language and too soft tone makes it hard for me to say i really love it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A lighter, exuberant and more dynamic set. I'm loving it
Comment: Their fifth album starts in buoyant, wide-eyed pop mode, moves through some twinkling, delicate passages, revisits their usual slow-build post-rock prettiness and reaches an ambitious climax with "Ara Batur", an epic, orchestral requiem recorded with the London Sinfonietta and the London Oratory Boy's Choir, before ebbing away.
To the horror of some of their adoring fans, the CD actually contains a few melodies which one might tentatively describe as pop tunes.
More a development than a departure, the album blends a lighter, more dynamic approach with out-there creative impulses.
The songs are sung in Icelandic, rather than the band's invented language of Hopelandic, and one song, "All Alright", is even performed in English, albeit via the singer Jonsi's gossamer falsetto.
Above all, these songs feel celebratory -- with a gleeful, stomping beat, soaring strings and deliciously rhyming couplets.
It is all pleasing to the ears and immaculately constructed.
Produced by the renowned Flood (U2, Depeche Mode, Smashing Pumpkins) and assisted by a string quartet and brass section, the album was recorded in its entirety this year: impressive speed, reflected in the joyous, unfettered arrangements and the sheer plasticity of the music.
What Sigur Ros have lost in the ringing of fairy bells, they may just gain in the ringing of cash registers.
Possibly, if Sigur Ros had intended to take over the world, they might have translated their album title into its English version: "With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly".
I'm loving it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Spankin Whaty What What?
Comment: If i spoke Iclandic this may sound better, but since I don't it just sounds silly. They really sound like The Samples, remember The Samples, they made all their good music in the early 90s... They sang in English.

And if the tune "Góðan daginn" is about spanking then it really is silly.

Good Day!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A tad underdevloped
Comment: 3 1/2

Starting off briskly, the majestic quartet's up-tempo pop dabblings seem to have not hindered the new album at all, which includes something for everyone. Though they revisit their trademark sonic buildups and offer humble acoustic contrast, a certain balance just does not seem to have been struck in the track sequencing, tapering off in the final stretch, and often sounding like a collection of quite good b-sides instead of their latest release.

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