Five albums in and it’s inspiring to find Sigur Rós still up for a bit of experimentation. ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’ or ‘With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly’ was recorded and co-produced with Flood in New York, London, Reykjavik and Havana - the first in the band’s career to be made outside of Iceland – and saw the foursome adopting a looser approach to the whole record-making process: it was written, played and mixed entirely this year, and is released just one month after completion. Speedy stuff.
As a result there is the occasional odd imperfection on a few of its tracks, but it all adds to the charm of this utterly sublime latest work. On ‘Ára bátur’ for example, which was recorded live in one take by a hefty total of 90 people including the London Sinfonietta and London Oratory Boy’s Choir, you can hear Jón Thor Birgisson’s trademark falsetto vocals break and falter a little as he struggles to hit soaring high notes over rich arrangements of horns, strings and band, all erupting in a joyful climax which really tugs at the heartstrings. Apart from this instantaneously captured feel, the song is another example of the standard epic fare we have come to expect from the Icelandic outfit, as is ‘Festival’, but these are the only two which bare any similarity to their previous works as the band also push the envelope sonically this time around. From playful, folky opener ‘Gobbledigook’ onwards we are treated to the Sigur Rós go pop of ‘Inní mér syngur vitleysingur’, ‘Með suð í eyrum’’s fuzzy beats, delicate acoustic guitar-led ballads such as ‘Góðan daginn’ and ‘Illgresi’ and the warm and moving ‘Fljótavík’ which features the quartet’s first ever use of the Mellotron.
Perhaps most surprising, however, is the fact that ‘Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust’ boasts Sigur Rós’ first ever English language track in the form of the glacial and starkly rendered ‘All Alright’, which finds Birgisson singing in an extremely hushed, low vocal register over tinkling pianos. It’s extraordinary stuff, and while admittedly both long-time devotees and the thousands of newcomers turned on to the band following the success of mainstream breakthrough track ‘Hoppipolla’ may be challenged by this latest work for very different reasons - it sounds nothing like favourites ‘Takk’, ‘()’ or ‘Agaetis Byrjun’ – the record marks an important and incredibly compelling progression in the band’s musicianship and career. One trick ponies Sigur Rós certainly are not.