All of it.
All of it. Yes, even
Von. Well, some of
Von at least. Despite being
The Unintelligible to the vast majority of the audience, they've achieved widespread mainstream success. It's not hard to imagine why.
Von
- "Myrkur" is awesome despite being Early-Installment Weirdness, With an awesome bassline and vocal harmonies. The ambient bridge is great too.
- "Hafssól," which the band felt was awesome enough to re-record. Exploited by Olan Rogers
- "Syndir Guðs (Opinberun Frelsarans)" is remarkably creepy.
- Short answer: the whole album, front to back. Long answer:
- "Svefn-g-englar" is like High Octane Sweet Dreams Fuel. And the title translates to "Sleepwalking Angels." Dawwwwwww
- "Starálfur." That string arrangment!
- "Hjartað hamast (bamm bamm bamm)". Nothing like their other songs, sounding more like blues, but still freaking awesome!
- "Viðrar vel til loftárása". The music does not distract from its message about gayngst.
- "Olsen Olsen" starts off nice enough, but once things really kick in around halfway through, it just becomes glorious.
- And then after that comes the Breather Episode that is "Ágætis byrjun", which shows that even when working with just acoustic guitar, bass, drums and piano as opposed to their characteristic wall of sound, Sigur Rós can still deliver.
( )
- You'd be forgiven for crying at hearing the first song.
- "Samskeyti." not unnoticed by Gregg Araki, since he's a shoegazing fan who used the song in Mysterious Skin.
- The final track, "Popplagið". It starts out nicely as a soft, mellow song, but its real shining moment — and the reason why people remember it — occurs later into the song with one of the most intense build-ups in their entire catalog, after which all of the instruments just pull out all the stops and it sounds magnificent. At nearly every concert, it's the final song they play, regularly stretching to upwards of 13 minutes.
- As if the song couldn't get good enough, pure magic happened
when they played the song as an encore at their 2008 Greek Berkeley show. On the day of the show, there had been rain scheduled, but reportedly none appeared for the whole concert...until the band played "Popplagið", after which point it started pouring like a gift straight from the heavens. In a Reddit AMA, the band even stated that it was one of their all-time favorite moments, and for good reason.
Takk...
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Valtari
Kveikur
Other:
- Jónsi's voice in general. By god that man can sing. At live concerts he's managed to hold single a loud, falsetto-toned note for well over a minute! Here's one such example of him holding a note for 49 seconds.
- "Hljómalind," is more traditional than most of their songs, with the traditional instrumentation creating textures before giving way to a POWERFUL, BEAUTIFUL chorus.
- Jonsi's solo work has some great songs as well. Examples include: "Around Us", "Sinking Friendships", "Go Do", "Grow Till Tall", "Sticks and Stones", and "Where No One Goes".
- Route One. Talk about driving music!
- The sheer fact they, a post-rock/dream pop group, got the opportunity to score, of all things, a Black Metal thriller. It speaks volumes of their skills as musicians, especially those who simply assume they're all hope and light when remembering they made Von and Kveikur.
