Music : Agaetis Byrjun

Rating: - This album is so delicious I could eat it for breakfast.
A friend recommended this unpronouncable album to me, knowing I had a taste for atmospheric, ambient, semi-orchestral/semi-electronic, spine-tingling music. And I wasn't disappointed. This has got to be one of the finest musical creations I've ever come across. I'm not good with the Icelandic track names, but for me tracks 2, 3 and 7 are the most divine, stopping me totally in my tracks and making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up on end. I understand the lyrics are in an invented language called "Hopelandic" (rather like the gobbledigook the Cocteau Twins used to sing), and this just adds to the mystery of the thing. But for this reason, and the lead singer's unusual high-pitched voice, it's an acquired taste (my wife certainly doesn't approve)! I was fortunate enough to see Sigur Ros live when they supported Radiohead in Oxford in early July 2001, and this just reinforced their credentials. To summarise: THIS ALBUM IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!

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Rating: - 'Pet Sounds' for the new millennium
...I know, that sounds like an odd thing to say about an album that's described as icy, ethereal, god crying tears of gold etc etc. But in the sheer innovation and musicality of this album that's the comparison that I keep coming back to. It's beautiful stuff. On first hearing I spontaneously burst into tears (during Staralfur) and spontaneously laughed out loud (during Olsen Olsen). It's music that has that direct connection to the point between your shoulder blades where true art is experienced.

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Rating: - I got married to 'Vidrar vel tel loftarasa'...
... well, it seemed like the most beautiful, perfect song you could possibly have on your wedding day. 'Agaetis Byrjun' is one of the strangest, most original, incredible, glorious and beautiful albums ever made. It's like nothing else around. Fragile instrumentation, powerful and mystical lyrics, Jonsi's heartbreaking voice and keening bowed guitar, majestic strings... what on earth more could you want? If you don't have it, buy it right now. Go on, BUY IT!!!

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Rating: - Sublime
Having been a fan of Sigur Ros for over a year now I feel that I have only just gained the right to review their album. From the word go this album is inspirational. Iceland does not know how lucky it is. Jonsi's singing is at worst brilliant and at best simply majestic. Sigur Ros are pioneers of music using cello bows to play their guitars, drumsticks to play a bass guitar and even have their own mini orchestra. I have heard their music described as "Icelandic landscaping" ; an apt desciption. Calm, melancholic and atmospheric followed by sudden eruptions of sound comparable to an exloding geyser. Olsen Olsen and Vidar vel til loftarasa could become anthems of our time and on a rainy sunday afternoon there is nothing like listening to the sonar sounds in staralfur. Well done Iceland, well done Sigur Ros ; the music world salutes you.

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Rating: - the sound of the quiet before the winter storm
Slowly the album unfolds, instruments come and go; a little Icelandic jazz here, some Avalonian orchestra there. Yawning, the band blink into the Arctic sunlight, and they play. And oh, how they play. 'Hopelandic' is a language spoken by few and understood by many, it might just be the language of the sound that we hear. The way the loops open up the album, the way 'Ny batteri' could be a dirge for a Polar explorer, the joyous redemption of 'Olsen olsen' and the chance that that could be us hearing the Hopelandic national anthem. The way the piccolo tries flailingly to carry on after everyone else has gone home, the sound of 'Avalon' as it falls off a small boat into the deep, dark Arctic Ocean. The way words fail to describe the beauty of all of this, and the way that I ramble incessentally to try to convince you to join us at the border control for Hopeland. They've shown us how it could be, damn it if they are pretentious, but I want to be there too.