Rob Babcock
Active Member
After reading a very positive review in TAS, I decided to take a chance on the new Sigur Ros album. While this is their third album, I guess it's the first major label release.
It's tough to catagorize the music if you haven't heard it. Firstly, the album has no name, nor do any of the songs. For that matter, nowhere in the 4 page rice paper insert nor the jewel case tray will you find so much as a single word! No credits, no recording info, nada!
Hmmm...well, I buy discs to listen to, not look at, anyhow. And this album sounds great. The TAS review states that the album skirts a lot of genres without landing in any of them, and here I'll have to agree. There's a definate New Age feel to lots of the songs, but many display more emotion and gravitus than you normally associate with that genre. Much of the time, the vocals sound like an Icelandic Billy Corragaine.
The songs definately are measured out at a very slow, almost glacial pace, but even so are oddly messmerizing. You just get drawn into the music, and when it's done you'll marvel that 70 minutes went by!
Sonically, the new Sigur Ros is aces, nearly holographic in clarity and with deep, taut & tuneful bass that is near-shocking; it's definately some of the best bass I've heard on CD and rivals the low end definition of SACD/DVD-A.
Very hard to catagorize, and certainly not the type of thing you could pop in just to listen to a "song" or two (they average about 9-11 minutes each!), but very compelling. Depending on ones patience and taste for the unusual, you'll find this a very interesting and worthwhile disc.
_________________
It's tough to catagorize the music if you haven't heard it. Firstly, the album has no name, nor do any of the songs. For that matter, nowhere in the 4 page rice paper insert nor the jewel case tray will you find so much as a single word! No credits, no recording info, nada!
Hmmm...well, I buy discs to listen to, not look at, anyhow. And this album sounds great. The TAS review states that the album skirts a lot of genres without landing in any of them, and here I'll have to agree. There's a definate New Age feel to lots of the songs, but many display more emotion and gravitus than you normally associate with that genre. Much of the time, the vocals sound like an Icelandic Billy Corragaine.
The songs definately are measured out at a very slow, almost glacial pace, but even so are oddly messmerizing. You just get drawn into the music, and when it's done you'll marvel that 70 minutes went by!
Sonically, the new Sigur Ros is aces, nearly holographic in clarity and with deep, taut & tuneful bass that is near-shocking; it's definately some of the best bass I've heard on CD and rivals the low end definition of SACD/DVD-A.
Very hard to catagorize, and certainly not the type of thing you could pop in just to listen to a "song" or two (they average about 9-11 minutes each!), but very compelling. Depending on ones patience and taste for the unusual, you'll find this a very interesting and worthwhile disc.
_________________
