Ágætis byrjun

Today's Music that is Great and Also Makes Jason Want to Watch Some Wes Anderson Films is Ágætis byrjun, by Sigur Rós. By now, my fondness for Sigur Rós is no secret, so you'll probably have to run today's entry through some kind of fanboy filter in order to extract any usable opinions or text.

Ágætis byrjun (which I will be copy/pasting for the remainder of this post) is a semi-symphonic, charmed album, to say the least. Oh, there are vocals, though you won't be able to understand them; by the time you get halfway into the album, you won't really care. The instruments here are mostly strings, though more traditional keys and guitar show up on occasion. This is possibly SR's grandest if not most ambitious album, and while the emotions run high, they aren't played up for attention. Like most any SR album, you probably won't hear these songs on the radio unless you happen to listen to a college radio station that doesn't make its staff do regular drug screens.

The end result is a sweeping, magical work, one that sounds the way that the Earth must look from outer space or maybe just how it feels to not get sick on a ferris wheel. I do have to confess that this isn't my favorite SR album; I generally prefer the darker Von or the more whimsical Takk... to Ágætis byrjun. It's still very listenable, though, if the sheer emotion doesn't prove too exhausting.

"Staralfur" is the song most people are familiar with, and for good reason, but there are some other tracks that stand alone as well: "Ny Batteri", "Hjarto Hamast". The closer, "Avalon", is a nice way to wind down and reflect on the listening experience. Really, though, the only track I'm not fond of is the title track, which isn't so much terrible as it is overstayed and emotional.

In short, this is a solid introduction to the band and worth listening to, if you like SR or appreciate strings more than lyrics in your unconventional popular music.

In Other News:
where did the weekend go anyway?

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