In one long swoop upwards, you rise through the blue-green of the ocean. His voice is so high-pitched that it sounds female, is so infused with emotion that it sounds literally heavenly. Lead vocalist Jon Thor Birgisson croons his words like the elven love-child of Bjork and Thom Yorke. The drums drift from be-bop beat to war chant. It's got electric guitars, and one, especially, that's played with a bow. Splendid thinks "If Heaven had a house band, it would most certainly be Sigur Ros." Pitchfork Media says that "Piano, flutes, tremolo, horns, feedback, and that godly amazing voice scrubs souls pure with the black volcanic sands from the beaches of Vík". It is, it might be said, something that comes after rock. There are choral sing-along finales.Īnd yet, Sigur Ròs is not rock'n'roll. 'Olsen Olsen' actually has a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Not that I can notice the difference.Īnd are they minimalist 'sound compositions'? Not really. The rest are in 'Hopelandic', a made-up language that's part gibberish and part Icelandic. So they're a (mostly) instrumental group that plays either jazz fusion, noise rock sonatas, or minimalist arpeggio builds?
Sigur Ròs is, to use the most bland and generic of pigeonholes, a "post-rock" band. Now, upon hearing this factoid, most people would assume that Sigur Ròs is some neato rock band, who, à la At The Drive In, hit big at SXSW, and whom studio execs predict will hit the Rock Top 40 in a big way. We know now that MCA won the battle, and now carry exclusive rights for the band's North-American releases. Three or four months ago, the Web was agog with rumours that Sigur Ròs, those four crazy amigos from Iceland, were the subjects of a massive bidding war among American record labels.
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