Sigur Rós - Downsized Hymns

The work of Sigur Rós rarely seems to fit my world. It's one of those cliche-but-true observations that they make music as glacial and wide-open as the landscape of their native Iceland. And though my life can sometimes feel like it's moving as slow as an iceburg, it hardly ever warrants a soundtrack as closing-credits epic as the slow-building, major chord bombast of your average Sigur Ros opus.

About four years ago though, I did have one brief, meaningful experience with their album ( ). On Christmas I came down with the nastiest flu I've ever caught. It was malaria-grade. I had the week off work and spent it shivering in my bedroom alone, mostly in the dark (I was single at the time, and my roommate was out of town). I hallucinated. More importantly, and I don't know how to really explain this, all of my memories came back. Smell was a big part of it. I could remember every beach, every blade of grass, every perfume... By the morning of New Year's day the fever had broken and, as the sun came up, I put on ( ) and drank a cup of coffee, knowing that my memories had started to fade back away, and that I was going to lose them for good all over again.

In that instance, with my life dimming before my eyes and the dawning of a new year literally happening outside my window, the scope of Sigur Rós seemed appropriate. But those kinds of moments are an exception, and most of the time I'm looking for a smaller beauty. With this new release, Með suð í eyrum við spilum, the band seems to be trying to downsize a little bit. To, say, maybe the dimensions of a mere cathedral, rather than a Scandinavian fjord. To that end, I admire the perky percussion and ADD Animal Collective-isms of album openers "Gobbledigook" and "Inní mer syngur vitleysigur" and their attempt at a major stylistic change. It's a short-lived shift though, and by the third track they're back to their old hymn-like ways and much of what remains is Sigur Rós as usual, impossibly wide and sweeping.

Sigur Ros - "Gobbledigook"

Sigur Rós - "Su› I' Eyrum"