Why the hate for Sigur Ros?

At least Jimmy Page knew it was just a schtick for onstage. Maybe he should tell that to Jonsi.

[/SARCASTIC}

new album out this year for all you fans of good music

I can actually imagine him saying all of the stuff on this thread with a broad un-malicious smile, though!

when did roger turn into Geir?

to the first two, yes, they are not songs nor were they ever meant to be, you couldnt play them on an acoustic guitar, yr right. Jerusalem however is a very great song indeed - whether you can play it well on the piano (and i'm sure you could) does not affect that.

Song A song, in classical music, is a short and self-contained piece for one or more voices; it can be accompanied or not, and either sacred or secular in nature. In popular music, however, just about any musical composition (vocal or instrumental) is called a song.

I'm a big fan. Loved them the first time I heard them, just before ágætis byrjun came out, ( ) is one of my 5 favouritest albums ever, Takk took a while to grow on me but I now totally get it.

I saw the screening + acoustic set they did in Ghent of the DVD they've got coming out next week, it's stunningly breathtaking ( trailer here: http://www.heimafilm.com ), the Hvarf/Heim reworkings are superb ( listen here: http://www.myspace.com/sigurros ) - more info about Heima/Hvarf/Heim here: http://sigur-ros.co.uk/band/disco/heima.php

I understand the hate, on paper/in theory I should hate them too, I shouldn't like anything about them, but it just works and I love them.

ok, start hating again, everyone :-(

I don't hate them. When anyone asks me to name some of my favourite artists, I always (always!) forget about Sigur Rós, but usually when I'm alone and in a certain pensive mood for which even Radiohead are too upbeat (ha!) and Joy Division are too heavy-dark, I'll rediscover something like "Starálfur" or "Olsen Olsen" or "Njósnavélin" or "Glósóli" etc., and be half-pleasantly, half-unsettlingly transported again into a half-world of ambient orchestral underground caverns in which the very twisted columns are built from crystalline sugar -- granted, haha -- but which also deflect, reflect and echo some kind of ebbing, flowing hesitant/grandiose beauty.

So yeah, at times, I really do like and even love Sigur Rós, recognising the "pretentious noodling" tag as being really very ridiculous indeed. I.e./ they're not noodling at all and who the fuck cares about pretentious?

I suppose I should also say I've been a long-time Yes and Cocteau Twins fan (respectively, from Close To The Edge and Garlands onward, really) so much so that so-called whale music has never been alien to me. It's a definite prog streak that, if you're not onboard with it, precludes you from loving the Icelandic chamber music (cosmic inflation-collapse) Sigur Rós specialise in. They're hit and miss in terms of timing and pacing and all that subjective shite, though. F'rinstance right now I'm listening to a song by them called "Flugufrelsarinn" and it's taken waaa-aaa-aay too long to reach the sublime payoff before dissipating waaa-aaa-ay too quickly. Although undoubtedly painfully gorgeous while it lasted.

Why the hate people?
-- Gregg, Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

Because it's ambient noodling for fuck's sake. Use your ears.
-- Julio desouza, Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

One of my favorite immediate answers to an ILM thread, ever ^^^

As for the band -- wouldn't say I'm a fan, don't own anything they've done, don't love em or hate em. Sigur Ros is just one of those indie institutions (so to speak) that is perpetually overrated by the kids who haven't found artists who have done/are doing what Sigur Ros is doing, but infinitely better.

Yeah, this is a critical and undervoiced position: Agaetis Byrjun versus "Blue Skied and Clear." I'm really not one for the whole "someone did that ten years ago so it's not good now" arguments, but I suspect that on some level this is why Sigur Ros strike me as good but inessential.
-- [ban me], Monday, March 11, 2002 7:00 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Link

[ban me] OTM, as usual, waaaaaay upthread.

(Going back to that "is there any good music writing left?" thread: Is [ban me] currently writing for anyone? Last saw a Pfork review by him at least a year ago, can't recall much else. Love his writing though, and generally agree with his tastes.)

(...why was N*tsuh changed to [ban me]??)

lets cyberfuck

tl;dr

Sigur Ros may be the only act on the ILM hate list that does not write traditional verse-chorus-based songs.

their albums can be kind of dull but they were amazing live a few years back, i was shocked. i think they work much better in a live setting, surprisingly.

I don't know how I feel about them, but I will say that they've never really sounded at all like anything anyone on ILM has compared them to. Their layers of vocals that distort as they grow louder really don't sound anything like the Cocteau Twins or any shoe-gazing band. Like it or hate it, it's definitely its own thing.

Agaetis Byrjun was pretty good, I thought, but ( ) was better. I also thought they were pretty amazing live when I saw them maybe 4 years ago. Heard bits and pieces of Takk but it never really stuck.

I think the hate towards them often just amounts to kind of silly, knee-jerk reactions - "fuckin new age innit?!?" "fuckin ambient prog noodling" bla bla, come on guys. There is plenty of great stuff that could be saddled with the new age or prog labels, and shouting those labels was/is never a good substitute for decent criticism. That said I suppose the hate is just backlash towards the hyperbolic praise given to them from the indie press, and now I guess from the NPR crowd.

But decent enough ambient/post-rock band, even if there are a few songs that sound a little syrupy.

Pulled from the Stylus archives today, in the Bluffer's Guide to Stylus retrospective:

Haiku Marathon 2005 (Stylus Staff)
Sigur Ros
Just one step away
From being Enya, you daft
Secret hippy scum!

M83 are similar in some ways (large swelling orchestral cosmic ambience). I don't listen to NPR so maybe I've missed the backlash urge. (I'm not American.)

But, regardless, they sometimes hit heights of beauty that cause me to lose control of my entire skin. Which, for the most part, means they are a lot better than the ILM massive has traditionally given them credit for -- there was one poster who always, always posted on Sigur Rós threads and completely took the fucking piss out of them to the extent that any casual observer would think they were utterly dismissed here, which was not altogether fair.

That's the album where it sounded like they got kinda into AnCo and hitting floor toms and bouncing around, then had some time off and made the intensely soporific and sad Valtari.

The elements that folks may highlight to criticize Sigur Ros are really their strengths imho.

The narrow palette of sounds, textures, tempos that they drew from, again and again, the repetition of certain subtle little sound design tricks (pitched down/up backward sounds), (over)use of reverb and drone, that one phrase Jonsi sings over nearly an entire album.

The notion that they're perhaps hiding a lack of songcraft or ideas underneath a banket of drones and string sections, yet they feature a version of Ágætis Byrjun on the film soundtrack, unfettered by production and recorded very simply in a community hall and it is absolutely lovely, along with most of the rest of the performances on the film, kinda disproves the idea.

i like valtari a lot, sounds like the very idea of the band disintegrating

The notion that they're perhaps hiding a lack of songcraft or ideas underneath a banket of drones and string sections

Leading that one album off with "Gobbledigook" was a nice retort.

Valtari was a big favorite at the time, but haven't listened to it in years. I do remember there was a song that they repeated from Inni and I really like that one.

Lúppulagið, yeah that's a marvelous track.

i still always wish they'd let loose more like on "popplagid"

the album with all the butts on it is very very very good, i'd forgotten

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Friday, February 18, 2022 1:17 PM (two hours ago)

this one has always been my favorite. all their stuff is beautiful, but this one feels the most human to me.

I think I might be due a deep dive, it's been a long time, their YT channel is pretty good, seems there is a 4K version of Heima in the pipeline. There's a nice playlist of all the performances from the second disc that have been mastered in HD and they all sound fantastic too.

i'm so in love with valtari wow

I do remember that record two of Valtari got played at least twice as much as record one. Those four songs are so great.

Also a fun thing about that album on vinyl: side b of record one ends with a perfect loop of the end of "Rembihnútur" in a lock groove. I remember the first time I played it, that look groove went on for about five minutes before I realized what was happening. Trivial as it may have been, that really upped my appreciation for the album.

Looking back through the discography today, I had forgotten how many interstitial releases there are, EPs and collaborations, like Hlemmur, Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do, or Rimmur with Steindór Andersen, which is lovely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTcsTMKhUpY

I hope they remaster the extras for Heima too - this is still my favourite version of e-bow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G075tjMvoI

i’m ready to call valtari their best record, what an experience. on the surface it seems business as usual but there’s something so much more fragmented and fragile about it

They are terrible interviewees for whatever reason, blees 'em, but this is kinda interesting -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVpNkd4jxPM

i like that the record isn't just celestially pretty either, the digitally distorted textures they employ almost as percussion on a few tracks make them feel like there's some mechanical failure going on at their core. i wrote this sentence to go out of my way not to call it "the asmr sigur rós record"

I really enjoyed rewatching Heima over the last few days, then I realised that there's a commentary track by the manager John, and it provides some interesting details.

It really is a beautiful document, a fascinating atmosphere. I still think the individuals are awkward on screen, modest to a fault, and not so interested in discussing the music with depth, like mid-eighties New Order but much less aggressive.

First concert of the tour last night in Mexico City, opened with Svefn-g-englar and Ný batterí, lots from () and Takk, a lovely version of Fljótavík also, and a couple of new songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etL98SUDqEQ

new album is astonishing, basically a direct follow up to valtari

glad to hear that! i think i'm primed for great new album from these guys in my life

I like this rewind to the stillness of Valtari.

On first listen there are hardly any songs with prominent percussion or even unprocessed guitars really, loads of strings.

^ yeah, it's real floaty stuff, hasn't drawn me in yet