Why the hate for Sigur Ros?

(...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.

(i.e. Search "Sigur Rós" and you'll see one name crop up consistently... in a negative way, obv.)

my boss listening to these guys on high volume this morning. i don't liek!

Caught their BBC Electric Proms performance the other night; seem to remember enjoying the record on first few listens, but live they seemed to expose the song for what it really was; i.e. no real backbone, in other words, what [ban me] mentioned at the start of the thread.

it sounds like new age crap. is that waht they were going for?

Ok then, but don't let their music put you off from viewing Heima, the views of Iceland are breathtaking (and it may add something to the music as well).

http://gigwise.com/contents.asp?contentid=36563

Oh come on. I'm a big fan, but this is WAY over the top, anonymous (why?) writer:

"To make all this a bit more concise: Sigur Rós are arguably the best music band in the world today."

http://www.ireland.com/theticket/articles/2007/1026/1193293628660.html

Well sure, they might be the best music band, but that's only one of like how many kinds of bands?

There's a trailer I keep seeing at the moment for a BBC4 documentary about photography, which uses a track I'm sure must be by Sigur Ros because it's got those eeeeeeoooooooooooooeeeeeeeee vocals. But it's loud, and quite fast, and I like it. Can anyone ID it?

Rubber? Don't think they're the most elastic. (xpost)

Is it online somewhere, Jim? Can't get 4 over here :-(

sigur ros now seem to exist solely for the purposes of providing music for bbc documentaries

so? even if it were true.

Can't find it online I'm afraid. The show is called "The Genius of Photography".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajm-m2jPgc4

Hmm. I would be very surprised if it wasn't them, but I don't recognise the track. And I thought I had everything :-/

Duh. It's the final bit of Svo Hljótt, from "Takk..." (2005)

Hmm. Remix perhaps? Or something from here?

http://www.hvarf-heim.com/

oh, xpost. ace! Thanks. :)

so? even if it were true.

so nothing. just making an observation, wasn't a comment on their music.

phew. :-)

Post-release blues? (taking a break, may quit or not, don't know yet)

http://www.vanityfair.de/articles/kultur/sigur-rA-s/2007/10/31/04288/
(in German)

No link to this more than embarrassing NPR interview yet? It confirmed all the prejudices I ever had about them and their music. If it was a joke it wasn't very funny. They seem to be even more serious/sad than their music.

I don't see how remaining obtuse and quiet in a boring interview in a language that isn't your native tongue confirms more about their music than it does about your "prejudices." I think it's hilarious.

They're able to create a unique aesthetic with conventional instrumentation, and they usually have great melodies. It's just easy to take shots at them because they're not screaming like idiots over badly played punk guitars and sixteenth note hi-hat rhythms.

boy you sure just zinged all of ILM

ban everyone except plastic tipped cigar.

Sorry, I was just being pretentious enough to further allow people to judge them on anything but their music. They're readily emotional and some of their songs would kind of sound at home in an AT&T commercial, so naturally a certain crowd of people have a knee-jerk response towards them (for instance, the Enya comparison is off base to anyone with ears). Obviously, my namesake confirms that I also enjoy people screaming like idiots over badly played guitars.

ban everyone except plastic tipped cigar.

-- StanM, Thursday, November 1, 2007 9:30 PM (33 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

^^
Except for one condition: leave Geir Hongro unbanned. Then we'll have the ultimate ILM cockfite!

They do put on a great live show. More than once I have seen people cry at their gigs.

I like Ágætis byrjun, ( ), and Takk... and I don't really see much of a quality difference between them. Also, I don't find them all that on the fringe probably because it is very pretty music and no matter what other whack stuff is happening -bow strummed guitary, made up words, etc, everyone can connect to very pretty music.

Zactly.

More than once I have seen people cry at their gigs.

Dude I've seen people cry at a Blink-182 gig. So what?

And I have seen people cry at New Kids On The Block gigs. On TV anyway. ;)

Nice recovery.

Anyone see Heima yet? It's just glorious.

:-(

Won't bother anyone with the new album info then, sigh ("you sigh" ;-) )

oh, come on...new single is fuckin' great. sounds like a mixture of animal collective and peter gabriel. the video is full of naked people running in a forest. and the album is produced by flood. how can anyone not be excited about this?

seems like all ilm wants nowadays is a dfa beat to shake their asses to.

tell me about this new album, these dudes are all right.

this new song is the first i've ever heard by them and it's incredible

More info on the new album at http://sigurros.com/fifth-album.asp and free download of the first track at http://sigurros.com/dvd3.asp

Also, there's an album special at the http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk with more to come.

more flood, less sigur ros

I loved Agaetis Byjrun (sic) when it came out; quickly getting into Cocteau Twins and Talk Talk made it seem a lot less impressive. The {} album left me a big 'meh', but I quite liked Takk initially. Any antipathy from me towards them probably comes from seeing them live in 2000 or maybe early 2001 at Shepherd's Bush Empire; they played mainly from a soundtrack thing they'd done, and I just wasn't feeling it. We left halfway, wet to Walkabout, and watched Aussies bottle fight. Plus the ubiquity of that tune on BBC nature documentary trailers has left it slightly over familiar.

Or; I thought Vidrar Vel Til Loftarosa was AMAZING until I heard Bloodrush by Bark Psychosis and realised that the EXACT SAME SONG with the EXACT SAME BASS SOUND THAT I LOVED had been done 8 or 9 years prior.

I don't mind the influences as long as the end result works, and to me, it does. Don't like that Odin's Raven Magic thing you saw either, so fair enough.

Oh, and I don't like Agaetis Byrjun that much anymore, my favourite by far is ( )

It's not that I mind the influences - I love them - I just... it's not Sigur Ros's fault, but so many people I know were full of praise for their originality and otherworldliness, and then you realise... not original at all, and go back to source and stay there. It's the music snob way!