As anthemic as usual.
Is there anyone out there that is unaware of Sigur Ros and the anthemic beauty their music conjures up? After the BBC used their music to backdrop anything they created that had an inch of emotion, the band themselves took to the filming process and created their own movie, 'Heima.'
To coincide with a double CD of older tracks and reworking has been released and the lead single 'Hljomalind' finds the band in fine form as always. As you may expect, its pretty anthemic and builds and soars as you would expect it to, so its definitely business as usual for Sigur Ros. The vocals are pretty low in the mix so even if they were in English, it wouldn't be making too much of a difference but that's not what the band are about, the delivery of the vocals is more like a separate instrument and it adds some depth to the song.
The second track is called 'Staralfur', on the packaging this looked very much like Starsailor, which is obviously worrying as that band were completely shit and make us wish that it was them that Phil Spector shot (allegedly) but then you recall the band took their name from a Tim Buckley song and you start to relax.
The piano riff grabs the early spotlight as the strings twinkle in the background and the lead vocals have a low quality to them, like the lead track, but the over-riding emotion here is that its another impressive little bundle from a band who have a lot of the world eating out of their palm.