And in his reflexive effort to check his surroundings, he notices that something is missing-the walls.Īnd we’re only four minutes into the third track. Then, as a toddler, an awakening in his nursery room is marked by the image of an elf running toward him, strangely without getting closer. It’s a rare album that can induce tears on a first listen, but this is it.Ī first person narrative beginning in the womb, a boy anticipates nativity with an awareness of transience, reticence, impatience, and the explosive violence of birth, followed by experiences of the comforting softness in his early sensations. Ágætis Byrjun is an amazing breakthrough which has inspired dozens of bands-the reverberations are still being felt today. Not all the tunes on Ágætis Byrjun are as timeless and wonderful, but there's plenty to enjoy here. At over ten minutes, it's long for a pop tune, but the running time goes by in a flash because the music lulls you into a trance state. The breakout track is the title cut Svefn-g-englar, which steadily builds to an epic conclusion slowly dying away. It's more the ever so patient accrual of layers of bowed guitar, keyboards, strings and horns, all played legato, and how all of it is recorded through echo and reverb and other production tricks.
How do they pull it off? It sure isn't the melodies and the harmonies, which are standard issue. For sure, you can trace Sigur Ros' antecedents in My Bloody Valentine, Mogwai, and other similar post-rock bands, as well as ambient and industrial music, but the widescreen cinematic dreamscapes of Sigur Ros are unique to them. Ágætis Byrjun is a triumph of engineering and arrangement, but most of all, it's a triumph of imagination.