A Joke That's Gone on Far Too Long

agleaminranks:

So, Sigur Rós put up a new song/video for streaming.  I’m pretty amazed at their prolificness, putting out a whole new full-length only a year and a month after their last.  I just hope the output quality isn’t affected.

When they first put up a 30-second preview for the album a few months ago, I was really excited to hear it being more upbeat and rock-oriented.  I was hoping it would be a return to the sort of sound they perfected on Takk…, which is still my favorite of theirs by far and probably a top 5 album for me as well.  But this new song is tremendously different in every respect from anything they’ve done before.  It’s… dark.  And heavy.  I’m so taken aback right now that I’m not quite sure what to think about it yet.  All I know is that now I cannot wait to hear the rest of it.

I do, however, give the band very serious props for wanting to take such a drastically different stylistic change so far into their career.  I have a feeling the new album is most definitely going to alienate some fans.  And given how incredibly different of a turn their sound has made in the brief excursion since the last album, I think it’s safe to say that the band had a very clear and very driven burst of creativity when writing the new record, and I’m sure the quality will be to the tremendously high par that they set with every album they release.

Sigur Rós - “Brennisteinn”

Couldn’t have said it better myself.