Sigur Ros Releases Its Fourth Disc Takk To More Acclaim

The Icelandic Band's Latest is as Bizarrely Enchanting as Ever

Some great artists are great simply for their ability to connect with the listener. Be it through lyric or sound, they make you feel something so real and so deeply personal, it's almost as if the song was written with you, and only you, in mind. As a boy growing up on the Jersey shore in the 1980's, Bruce Springsteen made me feel this way.

Then we have another kind of great. Then we have a band like Sigur Ros. To be honest, nothing about this band resonates with me personally, and for all I know they are a group of magical Icelandic elves that run around sprinkling fairy dust when not writing other-worldly post rock anthems.

In fact, I prefer to think of them that way.

Sigur Rás' genius lies in its ability transport the listener. I imagine them as the U2 of Narnia, and God how I want to go there.

On Takk..., the band's fourth full-length, Sigur Ros continues an amazing run of creating gorgeous, enchanting, ethereal combinations of angelic vocals, piano, fuzzy guitars, strings, and horns piloted by a backing band of tripped-out Keebler elves.

The fact that every release even registers on the hipster radar is testament to the group's magic. Without overstating even a bit, it's unlike anything you'll hear in pop music…but with that being said, this latest release does sound very much the same as previous Sigur Ros releases. Now when you're caught up in the eerie majesty of tracks like "Gong" and its shimmering vocals and glacial synth, or the two minutes of rock catharsis in "Meo Blodnasir," this fact may not bother you a bit. 

But still, at their worst Sigur Ros do meander, bog down and tread a little close to a post-rock Enya for this reviewer's taste. But when they focus their efforts into a burst of anthemic glory, like on "Seaglopur," clearly the album's centerpiece, there's no place I'd rather be.

Sigur Ros' Takk... may not help you get over the girl, fight the establishment or even rock and roll all night and party everyday. But when they cast their spell properly, you'll forget all about those things anyway.