SIGUR ROS
() (MCA)
Reviewed by Erick Mertz

---

Leadsinger Jon Thor Birgisson's fragile wail bursts forward in unyielding tones, utilizing an invented language he calls Hopelandic. It's strange to think that lyrics without definitive meaning could create something so personally evocative, but layered over twinkling keyboards and riveting guitars it does just that. Sigur Ros' newest album "( )" is an impressive follow up to 1999's triumphant "Agaetis Byrjun" which brought the band major label attention and acclaim from Thom Yorke of Radiohead.

There is more relief on this eight song effort - more space to breath between crescendos, which are themselves more expansive. Orchestral elements still prevail, however, this time around, they sound like they come from a rawer somewhere; from some North country crag rather than a studio. With the tracks untitled, the album's name an unpronounced symbol and lyrics presented without literal definition, Sigur Ros is begging the audience to derive its own interpretation at every turn. Some would call this device deliberate or pretentious, but either way the result is a reluctantly stunning concept album. Wound in with the operatic psychadelica is a theme of exhaustion and desire, tinged with enough restrained suspense to look out from behind the instruments with doe eyed bliss.

Hailing from Iceland, a quiet and mysterious land of volcanic tempestuousness, Sigur Ros has effectively harnessed the dominant elements of their homeland and converged them on something as simultaneously ethereal and tactile as life itself.

© 2002 - Erick Mertz