Sigur Rós

Hvarf/Heim

[4.5/5]

If Sigur Rós’ fifth studio album Hvarf/Heim is a vehicle to express the majesty of Icelandic culture-or the benevolent wonder with which they embrace beauty, poignancy and grace through music-then a trip to Iceland is in order. Nowhere in recent memory has there been a trace of something quite so breathtaking, epic or even remotely inspiring as portrayed within the sweeping arrangements and frightening frailty of Hvarf/Heim. Jónsi Birgisson’s crushing falsetto marries a familiar, ambient, hushed urgency on Hvarf’s opening track “Salka,” which drones and whispers in the band’s now infamous Volenska idiom, bursting and preening against a demure guitar progression. The band have never been poisoned with the throes of mainstream expectation and show freedom via cleverly dark muses (“Í Gær”) as well as decidedly more optimistic realms (“Hljómalind”). Even when a song seems as though its reached it’s absolute apex of epic proportions, it fails to fall under its own weight. The result is a spookily brilliant universe of sound that requires repeated listens and which especially demands an innovative nod to a band quickly ascending the ladder of mood-altering, stirring rock music. The added bonus of Heim, an acoustic recording of older Sigur Rós songs, is icing on a very rich cake. (XL) Ryan Prado



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Radiohead’s Kid A

Pink Floyd’s The Wall

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