release date: Oct. 28, 2002
format: cd / vinyl (2015 reissue)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Sigur Rós, Ken Thomas (uncredited)
label: FatCat / XL Recordings - nationality: Iceland
Track highlights: 1. [untitled] (Vaka) - 2. [untitled] (Fyrsta) - 3. [untitled] (Samskeyti) - 4. [untitled] (Njósnavélin) - 6. [untitled] (E-bow) - 8. [untitled] (Popplagið)
3rd studio album by Sigur Rós following more than three years after Ágætus byrjun (June 1999) originally released on FatCat Records and produced by Sigur Rós and Ken Thomas. The album is a step into a more experimental post rock style, and seems very much like a conceptual album. The title of the album is often referred to as "the brackets album" ('Svigaplattan' in Icelandic) or "the untitled album". The cover art underlines the idea of the left-out title by two bold brackets forming a symbol, which has been used for various projects by the band like a signature (also represented on their full-length live 2 cd release Inni from 2011). So, the album is without a title, and this is continued for each track on the album as no tracks are left with any title except for [untitled] or simply titled via the track number. The additional titles comes the band's own official website - when referring to tracks - and here the album is also given the producer credits that are likewise left out on all issues of the album. It contains eight compositions and they're all held quite stricltly in an ambient style, somewhat closer to the band's debut album than Ágætus byrjun, but again, compared to the debut this is without the experimental art rock and instead with more ambient vocal harmonies, and then it's much more of a whole making it a unique release.
Overall, the band seems to try out new ways of expression, and although, I don't find it a huge leap forward, it's a rather fine coherent collection of moody post rock.
[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]
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