“After we do that, we all the time discuss every album as if it is likely to be the final,” says Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi in a press launch in regards to the Icelandic post-rock pioneers’ now seldom returns to the studio. “We’re all the time desirous about local weather change, doom-scrolling and going to hell…”
Crikey. So Jónsi appears fairly understated when says of the panorama that surrounded the making of their long-awaited eighth studio LP that “the world felt a bit bleak making this album” – but worry not – “however perhaps there may be hope. When there may be darkness, there may be mild.”
It’s been a decade since Sigur Rós final launched an album, though it could not seem to be it on account of their omnipresence at festivals, common spell-binding dwell reveals and the truth that you’re usually solely minutes away from ‘Sæglópur’ or ‘Hoppípolla’ soundtracking some cute little eagle chicks retreating in an Attenborough doc.
Within the time between data, drummer Orri Páll Dýrason left the band amidst his denials of sexual assault, and the band fought and received a gruelling battle over alleged tax evasion again in Iceland. Now they’re again with multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson who rejoined after leaving the band in 2012, finishing the trio with Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm.
Launched with barely a day’s discover, the ensuing ‘ÁTTA’ is totally at odds with the violent, industrial and anti-commercial 2013 predecessor ‘Kveikur’. Joined by the 32-piece London Up to date Orchestra performed by Robert Ames, listed below are 10 tracks of luscious however measured drama.
From the glitchy however hovering opener Glóð by way of to the tender and intimate ‘Blóðberg’, the blossoming ‘Skel’, the doomily cinematic ‘Mór’, ‘Andrá’s subtly constructing sense of triumph or the aptly-titled warming balm of ‘Gold’, ‘ÁTTA’ in the end succeeds at what a great Sigur Rós report does finest: it holds you.
The sprawling and superb ‘8’ closes the album, ending with that heaven-sized sense of hope promised and finest capturing the spirit of the album. You don’t want drums to pack a punch, and also you don’t want to grasp what’s being sung to really feel it. There are not any tales to cling to, simply elemental emotion and a connection.
In that, ‘ÁTTA’ is a minimum of the band’s finest album since 2005’s monolithic ‘Takk’ made them a family identify, and at most a report that offers Sigur Rós loads extra cause to exist in including some pure and pure soul to this chilly and unfeeling world.
Particulars
- Launch date: June 16, 2023
- Report label: BMG
