( ) - Sigur Rós

Track List:

1. Vaka
2. Fyrsta
3. Samskeyti
4. Njósnavélin
5. Álafoss
6. E-Bow
7. Dauðalagið
8. Popplagið

Runtime: 71 mins
Released: 2002

Yes - first thing - I have named the tracks. Last FM suggests I am far from alone in doing so.

Second thing that comes to mind is that I've seen Sigur Rós live once... probably heard some of these tracks. Don't really recall it at all, overshadowed as it was by the fractious nature of the friendship I had with the other person I was at the gig with, and the fact they were then unknown mid-afternoon support for a lineup that culminated in Radiohead's homecoming gig. That was 2001; this album came out in 2002 but their blurb says they were playing these songs for a year or more before that so... I only remember thinking "whalesong", for which I now am ashamed and full of regret.

I don't remember when I first really heard Sigur Rós and became a convert, but this album was almost certainly key to my doing so. I do regularly indulge in tracks from it, though 90% of that does tend to be either the superb closer or the supremely touching Samskeyti. Listening back can't help but feel the opening two tracks of the album are quite weak and that I'm going to end up concluding that my favourable overall impression is heavily weighted by the two standouts.

The arrangements are sparser than memory alone would have me believe - there's depth there, but it doesn't sound as lush or as layered as in my decade-old nostalgia. I do remember always having trouble discerning the tracks from each other - not because of the initial lack of names, but more because the vocals used from song to song have a certain reliance on similar sounds. Or possibly this is just my mind playing tricks again.

Samskeyti just started and immediately I am sucked right back in... and the keys have not even kicked in. When they do, shivers and goosebumps follow. It is just a spectacular melody. Always reminds me of the closer from Heima - their film. I want to say those visuals are of the group in a candlelit studio, but I don't trust my memory. Maybe I should re-watch it, it's been a while. I don't remember the sharp edge to the guitar line in my idealised recollection of the track; it's not unpleasant, just at odds with the softness and splendour of the piano.

Got distracted during Njósnavélin, jarred back to conscious thought when it ends; rather sudden cut-off to what is otherwise a very pleasant piece... but which gives way to the mournful drone of Álafoss which doesn't quite sound right as I listen in a relatively brightly lit room!

I have strong memories of walking in the rain listening to this album on the way to and from campus whilst I was in Bath doing my PhD. Those memories appear to almost entirely revolve, as my strong enduring love for it does, around a minority of the tracks. Also, the further I get through this listen, the more I think my earlier comment about the vocal stylings in each track being similar is reflective of how the human brain does not let memories go, as such, but rather twists them as pieces are lost - precisely the kind of activity that got me interested in neuroscience to begin with... not that I'm sad I left it behind: research really didn't agree with me. 

I am getting impatient. Not because Dauðalagið is bad, but because it isn't Popplagið and I am more in the mood for an uplifting cathartic climax than a dark, brooding number. The problem with this exercise is that I know what is coming and it pressures my "skip" trigger when what is up next is something I would much rather hear. That is, of course, precisely the point; listen to it all. I am sorely tempted though!

Patience brings its reward - that riff just cuts to my soul and the arrangement and drums gradually fill in and reach my consciousness. I could listen to this track on loop for a very long time before getting bored. I am certain to call a hundred plus songs my absolute favourite if this project lasts and this is the first of those pretenders. In some ways it has a less powerful effect than Samskeyti - no goosebumps this time - but it leaves a more lasting impression. This, I am sure, was not part of their set back in 2001... it can not have been, surely? Bloody hell... seems like it might have been. They list it as "the pop song" in a 4 track set where "untitled 8" may refer to Samskeyti if cross-referenceing with another entry in the list. Now my regrets from that day are amplified.

Drums kicked in; eyes closed; breathe deep; relax. 

Silence now, the album is finished. All I can hear is the tapping of my keys and the whirring of the laptop fan. Typing on this machine is annoying - far too easy to hit the trackpad by accident and I have had to undo and/or retype several sections of this post as a result. The silence is interesting though... it's filling my awareness in a way that it would not had I played Popplagið when the player was on a random selection from my library and so is re-enforcing the idea of an end. This in turn has me reflecting on the piece more - by which I mean the final track, but also this writing.

I think I have enjoyed this process, but starting with an album I like a lot feels like cheating. There are some other interesting items in the 20 more titled collections before I get to "A" but none of them hold my affection in the way ( ) does. The album clearly stands up still, but listening to it in full for the first time in several years has me less impassioned than I was. Three tracks stand out, two shine very brightly indeed (Njósnavélin is the third). I cannot bring myself to un-tag it from "favourites" but it only hangs in there by its fingernails.