sigur ros - takk
Iceland as a country has an image and reputation of being a mystical place. Often this translates into the sound of the music that is exported from there. As a country it can be perceived as being stuck out on a limb, doing things there way and away from the glare of the rest of the world. This is an assessment that can be applied to the Icelandic music scene, as although Bjork went with the commercial approach for a while, even their biggest and best known star is doing things in her own creative way, no matter how off the beaten track it may seem to the rest of us.
Sigur Ros are a classic word of mouth band, building a reputation regardless of media attention and hence their creative streak is one that means they are impossible to place into any genre box, an intrigue factor that only serves to further strengthen the cult factor of the band, with their live performances in the early part of their career being the thing that won them such a fan base.
In the first few years of this decade, Sigur Ros toured themselves into the ground and as a result the recording process for their third album was rather stale, as much of it had been hammered in the live arena. Despite this that record, which didn’t have a title as such and was distinguished by a set of brackets, was critically acclaimed, as with all their work to date. Since then the band have knocked touring on the head so as to approach the creation of the forth record a fresh. They didn’t lie low though and have been involved in over thirty extra curricula activities, ranging from working with and producing fellow Icelandic artists, to making independent films and even helping write a ballet for the Danish. That time away from the day-to-day routine of being in a band has recharged the batteries and they’re back as strong as ever.
‘Takk’ is the nearest Sigur Ros have come to making actual pop music. This is really only because it is the most commercially accessible that they have been, a co-incidence that the Sigur Ros experiment has drifted in this direction, rather than an attempt to crow bar they’re way onto MTV. Although there is a certain polished feel to this record, made up of a collection of tracks that is easier to get your head round than on previous occasions, they’re very much into this approach of seeing where a track will take you, instead of following that conventional, beginning, middle and end pattern. It is as much a classical album as pop, rock or anything else, much use of orchestral instruments and an approach to song writing that makes the listener stick with the whole record and all it’s intricacies, in the way you might enjoy a classical CD, rather than skipping to a nicely packaged three and a half minute hit single.
Many words spring to mind as ways of describing - Mellow, Ambient, Beautiful, dreamy and haunting all do the job, but it is worth saying that this is a record that takes some work before you can really get under it’s skin. In the same way as you may need to rewatch a complexed film to fully appreciate the plotline, this record has things hiding within, that only make themselves known once it has been listened to a few times. Give it the time and it should reward you.