Come On Die Young - Mogwai

Track list:

1. Punk Rock:
2. Cody
3. Helps Both Ways
4. Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia
5. Kappa
6. Waltz for Aidan
7. May Nothing But Happiness Come Through Your Door
8. Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up
9. Ex-Cowboy
10. Chocky
11. Christmas Steps
12. Punk Rock/ Puff Daddy/ Antichrist

Running time: 67 minutes
Released: 1999

As much as I love Mogwai, I've never really got on with CODY as an album. It has always been down the pecking order for me. Probably because I came to the group late, and picked this up by going backwards not forwards. Still, now it's time to listen properly.

Punk Rock: isn't, but the synergy of the voice with the gentle wandering guitar is better than it has any right to be. The louder moments of the sampled voice track (TV show interview I guess) are less effective, crowd noise is not particularly engaging. It is snowing outside, I have not been sleeping well the past week or so and I have been overly social in that time, too - only one weekday evening and today, Sunday afternoon, to myself. I need that alone time to recharge, and hopefully the next hour or so can contribute to that.

I suspect I will enjoy the listen more than I anticipated when I wrote the intro (a long time back given the sparse postings and need to fill in As and Bs that I bought), and come away with a new appreciation for this record, but still - 67 minutes is a marathon, not a sprint. The listen is putting off consideration of how to handle a complex scenario in the RPG I am running, the washing up and various other things I don't really feel like doing right away, so the gentle meandering of the title track is a rather apt form of procrastination. I am actually pretty familiar with track Cody from the live album Special Moves, which I listened to a lot whilst driving in the couple of years after it came out.

Thus far the tone of the disc is subdued, placid, with a tempo to match. It's really rather relaxing, a long way from the quiet/loud dichotomy or the wall of guitar noise that crops up in many Mogwai offerings. The most interesting factor so far has been the use of American TV soundbites. One actually spans two tracks, linking Helps Both Ways to Year 2000 Non-Compliant Cardia. This latest tune has the most body of anything so far, but is still in keeping with the easy overall tone.Not having ready up on the album, I don't know if this continues throughout, whether it was a deliberate choice by the band to mellow out, or whether the longer tunes coming up in the second half are more immediately recognisible as Mogwai.

To be fair, I'd like to think that if I heard any of these tunes in isolation without knowing them I would still be able to guess the creators because its not a million miles from their signature either.

I am enjoying this little oasis of calm. I am half way through per the track list, but a lot less than that in truth. The back half contains 4 tracks over 8 minutes and 2 at around the two-minute mark, whereas the first half was made up, generally, of standard radio song length pieces. The first of those long tunes does not shake up the formula, the easy-paced, light melodies. It does introduce some more strident strumming, but still within a slow paced formula. At this point the form is starting to wear a little thin for me in some respects. Whilst I appreciate the overall tone I am increasingly finding my mind is wandering because it is all a little too samey. Then Oh! How the Dogs Stack Up comes in with a weird old voice sample and and being completely out of place - old-timey, slightly off-key piano, and a sort of screeching background. I think that tune has to go.

Three epics back to back now.

For some reason when I see the track title Ex-Cowboy, the cattlemen of the American west is not the first thing that comes to mind. I think instead of Football, and Bloodbowl, of Dallas and Darkside. Perhaps it is an affectation, sport on the brain, influenced perhaps by the silenced snooker on my TV right now? I really like the main riff here though I find myself semi-tuned out because the pattern is set, and the track does not seem to have enough of a crescendo. Of course, it arrives as I am typing that last sentence, a sort of helicopter-blade swirl of sound applied over the top of the same riff at the same pace and amplitude. A screech, a scream, an objection to something.

A nod to earlier, the static the tune ends with is used as a bridge between tracks, and Chocky kicks off with a lot of dissonant sound humming and buzzing around, obscuring a gentle piano intro. I find this to be unwelcome. One tune fades, another rises, and then the fuzz clears and we actually have a piece of music with a discernible structure. A pretty good one at that. There are hints of sounds here that remind me of other songs, snatches of other groups - positive associations. The one that I can't shake that pops up again and again through the track is Red Snapper... I don't recall the track title(s) for the songs I am thinking of though, so I can't explain the reference. Maybe They're Hanging Me Tonight? It's a very different piece, different style tone and everything, but there are echoes here and there, similar sounds used in similarly punctuating ways.

There is a sort of restrained but naked threat in the sound of the first crescendo in Christmas Steps, a sound that had me springing forward in interest and excitement. This is the first really aggressive passage of the album and I like the bolder, brasher sound. The contrast is too late in arriving for me to consider CODY a great album, but this at least provides a great moment. The energy disappears from the track thereafter and it feels like the wind-down lasts too long, but then from a certain perspective the whole record is one c.70 minute come-down with a brief lively moment near the back-end.

Classics for the Heart - Frédéric Chopin

Track list:

2. Nocturne in C-sharp minor, Op. posth.

Running time: 3 minutes
Released: 1999

This title comes from a 1999 CD release of classical tunes, but I am pretty sure that it was on my computer as a free sample, as I only have the one Chopin track, so I am crediting it to him. The date tag reflects that CD release, not the original date for the piece.

I heard this track relatively recently on Ólafur Arnalds & Alice Sara Ott's The Chopin Project; I doubt that I will pick up on the differences in the performance, so I suspect I might just ditch this but I will see how it sounds before I do so.

It is a nice piano melody, slow and stately pace but with some trills and runs that give it a bit of life. Light touch, fairly high in the register, floating across the room from the speaker.  It sounds... a little tepid? Insular? As if performed in a perspex box, but not for the amusement of those looking in. I don't feel a connection to the piece, even as I rather like it - and I can only put that down to the specific performance and recording. It doesn't strike me as worth maintaining in addition to the Arnalds/Ott offering.

Central Reservation - Beth Orton

Track list:

1. Stolen Car
2. Sweetest Decline
3. Couldn't Cause Me Harm
4. So Much More
5. Pass In Time
6. Central Reservation
7. Stars All Seem to Weep
8. Love Like Laughter
9. Blood Red River
10. Devil Song
11. Feel To Believe
12. Central Reservation (The Then Again Version)

Running time: 58 minutes
Released: 1999

I used to have a giant poster of this album cover - a freebie from a gig attended in Bristol whilst a student. I used to really, really like Beth Orton's music - hence being at the gig in the first place - but I found that affinity dwindling with each album after this one, and looking back before starting this playing, I think I probably wouldn't miss it if I were to cut all albums of hers except Trailer Park (which I definitely would still miss) from my collection. That said, I am sure there are tracks in here, and on her later works, that are worth my time, so lets spend some time with her now.

I remember the primary acoustic melody of Stolen Car, but not the more haunting elements of the intro and the lonely electric guitar. As I hear it now it all floods back, and I find I still really like the song. Form filling has been put off again today; painting instead. Tomorrow is the last day of the holiday, and I now have a fair chuck of things stacked up to do... how much like everyday life. Orton sings "don't you wish you knew better by now..." - yes, yes I do. I work better with deadlines though...

I have been in a strange mood today, spontaneously dancing to the shuffle earlier whilst doing other things - very unlike me. I am now into my second glass of white (my sop to New Year yesterday, left over to this evening) and forcing myself into the mindset for a post. The guitars on Stolen Car really do sound mournful, wistful, longing. I approve, as the acoustic line cycles a pleasant hook that contrasts nicely. There is a very distinct change of tone with the next track which is far more laid back. You wouldn't know from the playing alone, but I am reminded that the pianist on Sweetest Decline is Dr John. This is a world away from his New Orleans blues, a mellow jaunt. It sounds and feels a little overdone somehow - like that mellowness is being striven for slightly too hard rather than coming naturally. I think this sense comes from overproduction and slightly too much going on in the arrangement. Bongos, strings, piano almost competing. It would be better without the unnecessary percussion I think, but it could also happily lose the strings and pare down to Orton's slightly unusual voice and the melodic piano.

Snacking on flapjacks at this time of the evening probably isn't wise; they don't go that well with the wine for a start.

There are some nice elements here, but since Stolen Car finished it has never been more than "nice" - which is to damn with faint praise. I wonder if, perhaps, in another mood I would more easily overlook things that currently are slapping me around the face. The depth of production is a mile away from the last thing I listened too with its multiple layers and rich sounds and I find myself pining for the simple and genuine sounds of James Yorkston's record. Whilst Beth Orton has worked with some electronic music folks over the years, I am moved to suggest her solo material benefits most from a more minimalist approach. She has an interesting voice, one with an edge to it and a hint of dis-tunefulness and real emotion, pairing that with a simple guitar melody offers the chance to show it off more. 

I start suddenly; I am feeling cold though the room is at temperature (I've upped the thermostat now though) and it has not been that cold outside over the new year. Maybe there is a draught. I need to fashion an early night tonight and... oh carp; just remembered what I have forgotten to do today. Time for a brief interlude.

Fault corrected I resume with Pass in Time - which runs 7 minutes in length. This album is made up of longer than average tunes, there's only one below 4 minutes and the average is almost five. I think that is counting against it a little in this listen. I am not convinced these songs need to be drawn out as much as they are - and it is the first half that are longer. Ooh! Hey, that is the late lamented Terry Callier on backing, with his utterly brilliant and soulful voice. He can lift this track just by humming at the right points. That I love how he and Orton synergise (remember Best Bit) can't disguise that it is stretched past the necessary though. After the song finally closes, we hit the title track, and this does give Orton's voice the room to be the star. Soft programming and sparse bass create a crucible for a rather fragile-sounding song and I find myself smiling, enjoying it again. It suffers a bit more from the over-tinkering with arrangements as it progresses but it never gets too busy to detract from the central song.

I remember being young and angry and stupid and penning a diatribe to a radio station for playing some horrid electro-mix of this song instead of the album version once. The mix concerned was tripe, stripped out all the space that is what makes this work. Fragility needs the right support, and here the vocal really needs that openness. I am still angry and stupid, but far less young these days; I don't write to radio stations because I don't listen to them (except for sports) and I refuse to engage with Twitter or Facebook which seem to be the only modes of feedback these days. Ugh - try making a really cogent argument in 140 characters. That said, this long form pretty much debunks my ability to make cogent arguments in any medium. Oh well. I have been enjoying some good criticism of late - catching up on Errant Signal, which dissects videogames nicely in ways that I find fascinating. YouTube is becoming a more regular form of entertainment than TV for me now, even though I am pretty set in my ways and not one to over-subscribe or jump on bandwagons.

Back to the music. A series of tracks that flood back into my memory as they play have come and largely gone. I like the familiarity, but I am not over-sold on the specifics. I don't find any of them hard to listen to, or actively distasteful, but equally I do not find myself moved to comment on anything about the tunes either. I close my eyes and try to immerse myself in Blood Red River to form a more communicable opinion but it sort of slides off around me. I don't know if that says more about me or the music. I am slightly more taken with the opening of Devil Song where primacy is given to a simple voice/guitar combination. The form of the guitar work here appeals to me far more than the song itself. I like the crucible it creates, the timbre and the framing.

Feel to Believe is a pleasant surprise. I recognise it once it starts, but the name meant nothing. It has a more upbeat tone to it and that feels a little overdue somehow. There is a touch of awkwardness between one of the choruses and the next verse - the tune loses its structure and tempo and falls into limbo a bit before pulling it around by returning to the tone that was set at the start. Orton's voice sounds strained and emotional here - it adds an undercurrent to the piece that I appreciate even as it sounds less tuneful than on many of the other tracks.  I think I have a thing for unorthodox voices.

We end with a mix of Central Reservation which starts to fill in the spaces around the vocal more - electric pacing elements are introduced as percussion, the beat is rather annoying and distracting, but the song actually works with the higher pace. I prefer the more sparse version earlier on the disc by far, but the verses and choruses do actually fit well enough in the busier environment created for them here. I actually find myself more attracted to the words in this context, but the voice in the previous one. Odd dichotomy that. The disc ends horribly with a fade out rather than a proper ending, leaving me to consider the whole. There is no doubt that for me it doesn't stand up to the love I once had for it, that in places it is over-produced, over-long or otherwise disappointing. But there is also magic buried in here - a couple of complete tracks, or just moments or movements within others. I could axe it and not miss much, but I really wouldn't mind hearing just about any of these tunes again.

The Beta Band - The Beta Band

Track list:

1. The Beta Band Rap
2. It's Not Too Beautiful
3. Simple Boy
4. Round The Bend
5. Dance O'er The Border
6. Broken Up a Ding Dong
7. Number 15
8. Smiling
9. The Hard One
10. The Cow's Wrong

Running time: 62 minutes
Released: 1999

The Betas are interesting in that of the four albums I own two are absolute favourites, and two I never listen to. At all. This disc is in the latter category and I struggle to recognise more than the name of any track here. I wonder what I will make of it when forced to pay some attention, instead of being able to skip to something from The Three EPs or Heroes to Zeroes instead.

It opens with a pretty awful cacophony, dull hook, no harmony in the attempted harmonisation. The Beta Band Rap gets better when that all dies down and a more pleasant loop and beat replace the background. The overall impression still isn't great, and the track is more an almalgamation of different mini-tunes than a coherent whole. It is fair to say I do not like this opening and I can only hope that it gets better.

It's Not Too Beautiful is an immediate improvement. A more considered rhythm sets the pattern. Whilst I suspect it will get old over the 8 minute duration, it starts as fairly catchy. The biggest initial improvement is in the vocal, Steve Mason's delivery really working. Alas, the track goes to pot as it apes a Bond theme in structure and leaves me with the feeling that smashing tracks together might be an unwelcome thread through this disc. The more enjoyable structure returns after the experiment filters out, but alas it might be back as a chorus, since it contained the title as a lyric. The track just does not have enough to it to justify its duration and frankly I am bored of it long before it finishes. Technically it doesn't even finish, as I somehow manage to go back to a previous playlist, interrupting this listen momentarily before I skip to Simple Boy.

This track is stripped back some. Vocal and beats with minimal support; it should not work but it manages to by cleaving to something else: brevity. Mason's voice is another one that really works for me, whether on the Beta Band work or his own. His delivery appeals to a degree that allows me to forgive a lot. Alas, so far it is asking too much to forgive most of these tracks. I am stunned at how bad this is when held up against Dry the Rain, Needles in My Eye, Assessment etc. - tracks that pre- and post-date this rubbish. 

Its not that there aren't nice bits and pieces in here. Some of the hooks are very classic Betas and the vocals are generally a beacon of hope in the darkness, but the lack of vision and the impression that someone basically stuck a recording mic on a session of them pissing about during downtime then released it as a produced album is impossible to escape. In that regard it reminds me of the Ben Folds Five track For Those of Y'all Who Wear Fanny Packs from Naked Baby Photos. None of that would be so bad if it wasn't a whole hour in length. I am finding this uncomfortable, I don't like writing so persistently negatively about a group that I am very fond of.

Alas I am struggling to find anything positive in what I am hearing to address that tonal problem. I am seriously considering pausing the playback and breaking this up because it is so uninspired. Fingers crossed that there is something a bit brighter unearthed soon.

As I type that, Broken Up a Ding Dong starts (some confusion as to whether this should be a one-word title, but LastFM says no so it isn't here; source disc was no help at all due to crappy fonts). This tune is a little better. Handclap percussion and funky hooks remind my oddly of Rodrigo y Gabriela which is a pleasant change. Alas I find that it repeats a little too long, and when I say a little, I find myself wishing it stopped at half distance because the hook wore thin and there isn't enough interest brought in to keep the good vibe going. It does change up a little bit in the second half, but ends up sounding like the recording of a carnival crowd, steel drums and whistles to the fore. Ultimately it is another weak track. I have only liked one so far, and that is the 2 minutes of the 62 total runtime. Oh dear.

Another reasonable pattern establishes itself early in Number 15. Alas the album conforms to its own larger pattern of letting it run too long. Thankfully though there is a bit more mitigation here in the form of the chimes and other background sounds - screaming monkeys?! - that are thrown into the mix. Whilst not all of these sounds are nice they do manage to break up the repetition to an extent. Not enough for me to want to keep the track, mind, but it is an improvement of some of what came before in this aspect.

Three tracks to go, I must be nearly home... no, lengthwise I'm about 60% through. Smiling is 8 minutes and uses a vocal sample I am sure I have heard elsewhere... one of the tracks on The Three EPs perhaps? Or maybe its just the style that is very similar and it is a newly recorded chant. This track is less of an offender than many of its predecessors in terms of being annoying. Whilst the munchkin-like aspect to the vocal might grate a little, and the structure is very similar to earlier tracks, this one seems to offend less with its repetition of patterns that are frankly not as interesting as they might be. I don't know if this is because there is a touch more musicality in the crafting of the loops, a bit more depth or what. I am not saying I like the song, but I dislike it less than what has come before, even with its length - I have reached the 6 minute mark and whilst it could do with finishing, it is not overstaying its welcome in the way Broken Up a Ding Dong did so egregiously.

The Hard One is the longest single track on the album at 10 minutes and change. It is, or at least starts, softer than what has been before. Less reliant on percussion. I very much doubt it will last its distance without doing something to annoy me at this point, but it is much more promising than I was expecting before it started. Spacey piano was just getting going when it is replaced with the clip-clop of a return to the reliance on percussive instruments (not surprising given how many of the group were drummers I guess!) in an unwelcome intrusion. The interest lasted about 2 minutes. The whole thing virtually fades out on 4 minutes 30 and rebuilds from nothing. The key loop it starts with could have led to something interesting but it simply repeats for too long and loses interest while some bassy rumbles join, these too fading out in favour of something else. This is just incoherent again, which is more or less exactly what I expected the track to be. Awful. Just as I type that word, the soft piano comes back and the track returns to something like the opening that I rather liked. Alas, but for the 5 minutes in the middle this tune would be redeemable. Oh well.

We end with The Cow's Wrong, which I really hope is a surrealist reference to an animal opinion (quite possibly so given the off-the-wall nature of this disc) rather than a misogynistic declaration. Lyrics refer to cows in fields first, so I hope that answers that one, but it's not conclusive. I am actually finding it hard to follow the lyrics as I try to discern the conclusive answer - the effects applied to Mason's voice combined with the supporting structure make certain words hard to pull out. The song is just dull mind, so I don't feel like I am missing out on much,

As it winds down, I am left to reflect on the waste of an hour. I am stunned by how bad this disc is, especially coming on the heels of the Three EPs. Yeah, there are a couple of really bad tracks on that collection, but there are also several great ones. Here there is one pretty decent 2 minute experiment and an hour of utter tripe. At least they came back from this. Heroes to Zeroes is awesome, so I am hoping that Hot Shots II is not this bad.

Bending New Corners - Erik Truffaz

Track list:

1. Sweet Mercy
2. Arroyo
3. More
4. Less
5. Siegfried
6. Bending New Corners
7. Betty
8. Minaret
9. Friendly Fire
10. And

Running time: 61 minutes
Released: 1999

I picked this up after discussions on an internet forum with a French jazz-lover; I think I had to order it, and the other album of Truffaz's that I bought at the same time, from Amazon.fr because it wasn't listed on the UK site. Oddly WMP had it listed as 2003 but in looking up the album details for the image and caption I find that is actually earlier than that, so change made! I remember that Truffaz is a trumpeter but not much more and I have not really paid any attention to his music in years so I am a little unsure of what I will find here.

I like the snappy titling - no pretentiously long-winded track names here - but do they gel with the music they refer to? Time to see.

We open with bass and drums before some electronic sounds and Truffaz's trumpet join in. This is late night sounds at mid-afternoon when until just now it has been a blazingly good day, blue skies and warming sun. Ah, shopping in suburban Athens this morning. I remember this a bit now - English vocals delivered as a low-key rap. Along with the intro this exhibits why I think genre-typing music is a fools game; jazz can be a sibling to almost anything on the spectrum. In truth, I am not certain the trumpet adds much to Sweet Mercy, and given it is Truffaz's name on the disc that's a disappointment. I rather like its lounging mood though.

Pace is picked up a bit as the track shifts, and the sound and the title of the second tune makes me think of Miles Davis and Sketches of Spain. I guess, to their chagrin, most jazz trumpeters get compared to Davis in some way. I haven't listened to Spain in a long time (I do have it) so I am not really in a position to compare the tracks; it probably sounds nothing like this in any way, but I am reminded of it all the same. There is some funky underlay on this track, which is a better overall integration of the quartet and far more appropriate for a nice southern European day. I am doing this listen on the penultimate day of my holiday in the lazy afternoon; it seemed right somehow - though really I should be conjuring up some nice images of rural England and Wales to use in my Albion game whilst snoozing on a chair outside. I might do that next!

No, I think there is something Davis-like about the playing here even if I cannot pin it to a specific track or album. Something about the smoothness of the notes kindling thoughts of Kind of Blue, perhaps? Not sure, but the moment is passed and More has a muted strangle over a very sparse arrangement, kinda creepy but in an interesting way. The structure relies more on the drums and its interplay with a more subtle bass, very light with minimal, quiet and considered placement around that from the trumpet and electronics. I like this a lot after the rather odd opening; there are still undertones of oddity around the core, mystic edges, like mist rising from marshy grass, obscuring something behind (nope - used that already!) but the piece as a whole overrides that with a late night drive vibe - lighted strips, top down. From More to Less; will it live up to its name? More felt pretty light and sparse in places so Less would have to be more if this really is going to have less to it... I know, that sentence makes no sense.

This really is a light drum and bass track for its first minute and more - I love stuff on that blurred boundary, with trumpet in place of husky vocals and a volume more befitting comfort than throwing shapes. Comfort is what I find a lot of jazz to be about - not taxing to listen to, great backing for just about any activity. I can never understand those myriad people who simply dismiss jazz as if it is all incomprehensible improvisation with no structure or organisation. It's just music and there is good and bad examples everywhere however you like to categorise your music. Keys have taken on a little more work now, and as a result we get a relaxing stroll of a piece. Again the trumpet is oddly quiet, sidelined, for a lot of the number. So far it has felt more of a group effort than a star with backing.

The title track brings back the rap, with a bit more pace and intent this time, the percussion driving it along, and everything else carried along with it. This is nice soft and warm background music and there is a really strong temptation to treat it as such - divert my attention to other things I mean, rather than keeping score here. Partly that is not having much immediately come to mind that I haven't said already, partly it is the natural wandering of a mind over the period of an hour or so and only a small part of it is genuinely influenced by the music itself if I am honest. Sun is back out now, and I kinda want to escape to enjoy it... but leaving things half done will get me nowhere.

Oh, that's a nice switch. A gentle horn-led ramble now, keys backing it up and the drums and bass, which have dominated many of the tracks are distinctly relegated to support on this occasion. The track, Betty, evokes memories and images of the past, an effect which is doubtless stronger because of its placement after several tracks that owe more to 90s electronica than to the previous 5 decades of jazz history. It is a short piece though, and soon replaced by a haunting trumpet opening Minaret, evoking a call to prayer perhaps. Stylistically this is less Miles Davis and more Nils Petter Molvær - to name another trumpeter that I am familiar with. The track - I would say tune, but there is not much of one, is built around this muted wail and a strong drum backing, an interesting pattern which at one point (and maybe more to come) is broken up by musicality breaking through. It's weird... I am not sure how I feel about the track, 6 minutes long and not very tuneful yet somehow compelling and able to maintain interest for the whole length.

Another switch up with Friendly Fire also harking back to more traditional structures. Call-response between the trumpet and keys, backed by the percussion and bass, and with a few words sprinkled in. It is a bit kitsch given everything else - not nearly as well executed as Betty - and I am rather relieved when it ends and And starts. The final track echoes Minaret with its haunting wail of an opening from Truffaz's instrument, then drums and bass kick in. This is a 10 minute effort so I hope that they bring the interest to keep it moving....

Uh-oh. Just as I type that around the 2.15 mark there's a "bong" sound (part of the recording) and it all goes quiet. Stupid dead air outro time? Seems likely as by 3.15 it is still silent. Sigh - and it was all going so well.

The sound comes back around the 5 minute mark, Trumpet calling plaintively, lost and alone until some key-chords join the call. It is a little shivery alone in the dark type moment - or it would be if it weren't so bright out, and I couldn't hear the sounds of my dad playing Civ IV in the other room. This secret track is a bit of a mess; it has now developed some life, but the rhythm is reminiscent of a bad 80s disco and the structures and tones around it aren't much better.

It is a really disappointing end to what had been a pleasantly good album to that point, if one where I am not sure you would identify the trumpeter as the band leader from the work did you not know it going in.

Ágætis Byrjun - Sigur Rós

Track List:
1. Intro
2. Svefn-g-englar
3. Starálfur
4. Flugufrelsarinn
5. Ný Batterí
6. Hjartað Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm)
7. Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
8. Olsen Olsen
9. Ágætis Byrjun
10. Avalon

Running time: 71 minutes
Released: 1999

The cover image for Ágætis Byrjun is brilliant. 

On reflection, having already listened to ( ), I think this is probably my favourite Sigur Rós recording. Brackets has Popplagið and Samskeyti which really stand above the rest, but if I recall correctly the standard on Ágætis Byrjun is more consistent than anything that preceded it or has followed since. Time to see whether that is anything like correct, or just another case of my mind playing tricks on me.

OK, so the intro is immediately discounted, but Svefn-g-englar - whalesong comparisons though there may be - is a fine track. The reverb on the bass, the space the sonar-like pings allow, the floaty vocal... they are all loose constituents, but somehow bind together fantastically. With its long play time, the song - like the album as a whole has time to build. It manages to do so slowly despite never really introducing much instrumentation. There is a masterclass in minimalism here, until the 6 minute mark when it spikes briefly before returning to its prior pattern. Somehow, without any great changes, the tune manages to keep the listener interested over 10 minutes. I still cannot quite see how that works.

This is a long album at 71 minutes for 9 tracks and an intro but where some of that length might feel a chore, this does not. Starálfur immediately introduces more arrangement - keys and strings providing counterpoints. I like the keyboard line and I have a mental image of a scene from Heima where this is played on an upright piano in an empty hall... but I think it is an incorrect memory, conflating the visual with a different piece of audio (actually I think it is the title track from this album I am thinking of). What astounds me on this listen is how each of the first 3 tracks (intro still put to one side) are very different. Different styles, completely different arrangements and tone. The only thing consistent is the craft and how that hooks you. Flugufrelsarinn is more expansive, richer, louder but in a very controlled and understated way. It is my favourite of the three, touching my soul in some way I cannot quite describe.

I am listening on a night when I was hoping to be busy, but an overrun at work nixed my evening plans. I did not really feel like sitting and writing something when I began this - instead feeling obligated after wasting yesterday evening. Sigur Rós are the right sort of band for me in this mood - no kind of chore and quietly but powerfully uplifting. That said, I feel the quality dips with Ný Batterí - it just feels like it is lacking something compared to what has gone before... until it has built, and then it almost gets too much at once, presenting a slightly muddled sound rather than the clearer, more sculpted efforts of the earlier tracks. It reminds me a bit of some Scandinavian jazz at points, particularly the trumpet in the outro to the song, and whilst that is no bad thing, it is another different tone that jibes a little with the mood already established.

I love what comes next. Breathy, whispered vocal over a soundscape of a repeating riff, reverb and some carefully placed and monitored keys giving way to a cavernous expansive chorus (I guess?) before contracting again. There is a lot to like in the contrasts of Bamm Bamm Bamm. I am enjoying this more than ( ) for sure.

It is only listening to things like this that I notice the intros and outros to some of the tracks evoke Sigur Rós' first album, Von - or again, my potentially flawed memory of it - with its crackly static noisescapes. As a whole album they were a bit much; as bits and pieces around the edges they are still unimpressive, but they cannot detract from the sheer splendour of the pieces they abut. The one that begins Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása is very quickly forgotten as it opens up into a thoroughly melodic track, again largely relying on piano and strings. I really wish I could play keys like this. I could never hack practicing back when I learned as a child, but the piano has the power to move me like no other instrument. The strings here tug the emotions too, but nowhere near as strongly as the keyboard-derived melody.

It is funny to think that Olsen Olsen is the only track on this album to use their melodic nonsense "language" because to me it has always sounded more like an actual song than the other tracks on Ágætis Byrjun. Strange what our preconceptions can do, eh? I put that down to a much more classical song structure to open with, even if that has broken down by the end somewhat.

The title track brings me back to loving their pianist - just gorgeous melodies even when it drops into minor keys. I find myself wishing the vocal was recorded lower so that it did not obfuscate the tune so much. I think I have a preferred version of this to come on a later disc but it is a fantastic song.

The one truly drab spot on the album is the closer. Avalon just does not work for me. The sounds are off, too sparse and the tempo too slow. It is slightly atonal in places to my ears, and after an hour of song after song that would stand out a mile on most recordings, this feels like a really weak and unnecessary end.

Still, I would say that my recollections of the album are pretty much in tune with the reality that I have just sat through, and that 15 years after it was released it remains a masterpiece in my perception. My general feeling, to be tested in much later listens, is that as they adapted to stardom Sigur Rós became less interesting (particularly post-Takk), but this second album is a sweet spot; a work to be thankful for.