Best Ever Albums

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:06:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/30/2013 12:06

Good explanation lethal. Kinda wanted to say sth about that cutesy piano meets beautiful strings with jingly xylophone thing but, ..., well I'm lazy so let's give it a rest.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

jeremylannister — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:39:31 GMT

Author: jeremylannister

Posted: 04/29/2013 21:39

while it has some great songs (glosoli, heysatan, andvari) i found the album quite tedious and overproduced. its a good album but certainly doesn't add up to agaetis byrjun or ( ) for me. I think it was just too happy all the way through for my taste. I even prefer valtari and med sud to this album.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

drakonium — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:08:29 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 04/29/2013 21:08

It's been a long time since I've listened to this album. The last I found it (sorry, Tekin) boring. I worship Agaetis Byrjun, but this did nothing for me. I have to re-listen to it though.

Like Dingerbell said before, the one that definitely does nothing for me is ( ). I can't find any appeal to it. It's like they took the songs from AB, removed all the lyrics to put sounds instead (I don't understand Icelandic, however, having three words repeated all over a record is unbearable), while making sure all the instrumental parts were unintersting and repetitive.

But I'll definitely listen to Takk... soon again.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Dingerbell — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:15:10 GMT

Author: Dingerbell

Posted: 04/29/2013 18:15

To be honest, as much as I love Takk... and Agaetis Byrjun, the other albums do nothing for me. () especially bores me, which I think a few people were getting at concerning Sigur Ros. It's weird in a way, because I thought after beginning to love Agaetis Byrjun, () would follow, as they are comparable in terms of song lengths and dreamy sounding instrumentation. But, I just haven't found anything that I love about Agaetis Byrjun on (), and it pains me to say it bores me. I will try to give it more attention in the future, but I can't see myself liking it.

However, I feel like Takk... is easily the most accessible out of Sigur Ros' albums, and contains the most melody and standard rock elements in any of them. Especially the bass-lines, which are much more noticeable on Takk...- so contributing to that more rock feeling- and the drumming are definitely much more normal, in terms of popular rock music, than on previous albums. The songs are generally more up-tempo, and are a wide range of lengths and a much more diverse range of content.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I understand where the boredom from listening to some of Sigur Ros' music comes from, but on Takk..., I can't really understand where that comes from. It's your opinions, I guess.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 13:44:58 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 17:44

Love this album, absolutely soaring, entirely emotional.

Glosoli is probably the worst song though, really don't get the appeal with that one.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

meccalecca — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:56:35 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 04/29/2013 16:56

lethalnezzle wrote:

Despite not caring for their records, they are a band who I'd love to see live. However, I've seen some amazing live shows by bands for whom I didn't particularly care for previously that have still given me no greater appreciation of their recorded output (British Sea Power spring to mind). As I said, I've no intention of giving up on them altogether, and theirs isn't a sound that I find displeasing or bad in any way, just boring. I'm sure they put on one hell of a show and given the chance I'd certainly make the effort to go and see them.

Totally understood. How you experience a record completely changes the effect. There's probably no way i'd rank it as high had I never seen them perform the songs live. It's the same reason I tend to place Hail To The Thief higher than other Radiohead albums.

As far as "boring" goes. I think maybe a better word is exhausting. Even as a huge fan, there are times when I feel this album is completely exhausting. It's a long, tense emotional record without words. There's a lot of very well respected albums that i love, but also tend to be very exhausting listens (The Residents, Zappa, Beefheart, Ornette Coleman, The Pop Group tend to fit in this category)

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:27:12 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 16:27

meccalecca wrote:

No matter how you feel about their records, see them live. It was truly enlightening for me and a lot of people I know. When I saw them, I was a fan, but didn't think of them as an elite artist. The moment they began playing, they elevated themselves to the best of the best.

I've never seen a better live band.

This is coming from someone who was shooting 5-7 concerts a week for years in NYC. My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Godspeed, Elbow, Rocket From The Crypt, Thee Oh Sees, Killing Joke, Sonic Youth, Wire, Mr Bungle, Low, Outkast, The Residents. All of them put on spectacular shows. Sigur Ros eclipsed them all.

tekin wrote:

Well I have no way of figuring out how putting exciting things together can become boring (on the contrary I've always thought that what makes them interesting for me is the integrity, the fundamental conception of music one band has that makes them go for those things) but I certainly don't think everyone should like what I like. But I stand by my view that labeling sth as "boring" is useless for communicative purposes. I mean there's two poles, either I'm thrilled by a piece of music or I'm not, so when someone that is not thrilled by sth that I've found exciting claims that it is boring since I cannot enter into his mind the only way of understanding that remark is comparing it with my own experiences but then if I find that piece of music exciting then how can I ascribe one of my experiences of being indifferent to sth that I find exciting. Indeed I can ascribe that experience to that object hypothetically but I cannot see a way that this superficial attempt may give a deep significance in my mind to the claim of the person concerned. (Excuse me if it's unintelligible but it's the best I can do with my limited knowledge of English language)

I understand where you're coming from, and your post made perfect sense. I can sympathise to an extent, given that if someone told me that they found an album that particularly excites me (say, for instance, my #1, Clouds Taste Metallic) "boring", it wouldn't compute as to how they found it so without further explanation, and I couldn't put myself in their shoes without some form of elaboration on their part. With that in mind, here's why I think Sigur Ros are boring: the wannabe anthemic sweeping-guitar-as-facilitator-of-texture-meets-pretty-string-section-slash-cutesy-piano-o r-xylophone thing strikes me as somewhat overwrought, and it's used time and time again not only on this record but across everything I've heard by them, and to be honest it just kind of sounds like Godspeed trying to cover Elbow or Coldplay; they sound to me as though they are trying to portray some sense of innocence and childlike wonder throughout this album, especially on 'Hufupukar' and 'Hoppipolla', but it doesn't instill in me a sense of innocence and childlike wonder - not to say that their attempt is insincere or even entirely ineffective, but (and despite them being so-different-as-to-be-almost-incomparable artists) they don't achieve it to the same extent as someone like Daniel Johnston does, and it comes across as a little forced to me; it's all a bit much of a muchness, and I know that may sound somewhat hypocritical given some of the albums on my chart, but they just don't vary very much from the template I've explained in the previous two posts (on this album, anyway), and whilst that is great if that formula works for you, with someone who (such as myself) finds it boring, spreading that formula out over an hour only serves to exacerbate that boredom. So whilst I understand why you may not be able to empathise with my boredom, I hope this goes some way to explaining why I used that term and why I think it applies.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:00:39 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 16:00

lethalnezzle wrote:

You know me and my tastes well enough by now to know that I have no problem with unintelligible lyrics, or extreme falsetto, or ten-minute-long electronic or string drones, or the idea of using bows on guitars run through whatever effects pedals to create cacophony. In fact, I'm just as - if not more - inclined to check out and enjoy music that contains those types of elements than your average straight-ahead rock band. That said, I still find the way that Sigur Rós put all those things together over the course of an album boring. I even tempered my thoughts on the band with the admittal that is was "my loss". I haven't given up on them, but after numerous listens to numerous albums they still bore me. And I don't see how describing music as "boring" is useless. I didn't assume that it bores others, and I made an effort to emphasise that it was only boring to me. The fact that "one man's boring is another man's exciting" doesn't make the term "boring" any less useful in describing how I feel about the music of Sigur Rós.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

meccalecca — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:57:37 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:57

No matter how you feel about their records, see them live. It was truly enlightening for me and a lot of people I know. When I saw them, I was a fan, but didn't think of them as an elite artist. The moment they began playing, they elevated themselves to the best of the best.

I've never seen a better live band.

This is coming from someone who was shooting 5-7 concerts a week for years in NYC. My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, Godspeed, Elbow, Rocket From The Crypt, Thee Oh Sees, Killing Joke, Sonic Youth, Wire, Mr Bungle, Low, Outkast, The Residents. All of them put on spectacular shows. Sigur Ros eclipsed them all.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:47:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:47

tekin wrote:

One man's boring is another one's exciting; so the dichotomy is useless in discussing music even as a subjective view because there's no plausible way of connecting these two poles. As for Sigur Rós I would say that with a pop listener in mind it can't get any more offensive than incorporating unintelligible lyrics with extreme falsetto voice after testing everyone's patience with 10-minute-long electronic or cello/string drones making listeners easily set the scene for upcoming events (or just merely setting a scene; I bet you wouldn't mind looking at a sea or an autumn scenery for 10 minutes and you would certainly not dismiss it as being dull) but at the price of being called "boring" or using cello bows on highly echoed/delayed guitar making somewhat cacophonous sound but equally defining a band's unique/unprecedented sound and from a cultural point of view, being openly gays and nudists. That's shaking the habitual done right there again.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Mercury — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:40:29 GMT

Author: Mercury

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:40

You know when I first heard "Glossoli" and saw the music video, I was so overwhelmed by the complete beauty and message of the video coupled with the gorgeous song that I went and bought this album that day. And I remember watching that video over and over. It really is one of my all time favorite prices of art.
But, the album as a whole doesn't blow me away. I've tried to give it a listen several times. Same feelings for Agaetis Byrjum and the one that came out in like '08 with the long ass name I can't pronounce.

Anyway, yeah sorta an okay album, but not great.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Norman Bates — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:39:53 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:39

tekin wrote:

That doesn't say anything like that but there are other ways of checking that out.

Clue taken, way found, point checked out successfully.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:38:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:38

Norman Bates wrote:

Er... this means you like Takk, right?

That doesn't say anything like that but there are other ways of checking that out.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Norman Bates — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:34:49 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:34

tekin wrote:

One man's boring is another one's exciting; so the dichotomy is useless in discussing music even as a subjective view because there's no plausible way of connecting these two poles. As for Sigur Rós I would say that with a pop listener in mind it can't get any more offensive than incorporating unintelligible lyrics with extreme falsetto voice after testing everyone's patience with 10-minute-long electronic or cello/string drones making listeners' easily set the scene for upcoming events but at the price of being called "boring" or using cello bows on highly echoed/delayed guitar making somewhat cacophonous sound but equally defining a band's unique/unprecedented sound and culturally being openly gays and nudists. That's shaking the habitual done right again.

Er... this means you like Takk, right?

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:29:40 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 15:29

One man's boring is another one's exciting; so the dichotomy is useless in discussing music even as a subjective view because there's no plausible way of connecting these two poles. As for Sigur Rós I would say that with a pop listener in mind it can't get any more offensive than incorporating unintelligible lyrics with extreme falsetto voice after testing everyone's patience with 10-minute-long electronic or cello/string drones making listeners easily set the scene for upcoming events (or just merely setting a scene; I bet you wouldn't mind looking at a sea or an autumn scenery for 10 minutes and you would certainly not dismiss it as being dull) but at the price of being called "boring" or using cello bows on highly echoed/delayed guitar making somewhat cacophonous sound but equally defining a band's unique/unprecedented sound and from a cultural point of view, being openly gays and nudists. That's shaking the habitual done right there again.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Norman Bates — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:58:52 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 04/29/2013 14:58

lethalnezzle wrote:

I just think they're incredibly boring.

This, with the occasional very nice song (here, "Glosoli").

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:56:02 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 14:56

Meh. This album is really just meh. Agreed with Lethal.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Dingerbell — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:21:23 GMT

Author: Dingerbell

Posted: 04/29/2013 14:21

Stunning, beautiful and transcending. When listening to this, you feel like you just slip out of time.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

meccalecca — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:14:52 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 04/29/2013 14:14

lethalnezzle wrote:

This is one band that just does absolutely nothing for me. I just think they're incredibly boring. It's pretty, but it's also inoffensive and lightweight. I don't dislike them, per se, but I find it a chore sitting through a whole album. This was the first one I heard (I've given at least two of their others a fair chance too), and I went out and bought it following a friend's recommendation. I just... I just don't see what everyone else sees in them, I guess. Ah well, my loss.

You're one of the ones here I have the most respect for when it comes to taste, so I think you'll wanna give this more time. What seemed to be pretty, inoffensive and lightweight is actually one of the darkest, most tense listens I've ever experienced. Sigur Ros has a very strange effect that way. Jonsi's vocals and some of the elements have a way of making it seem delicate. This album in particular is absolutely haunting. I've seen this band 3 times, and in the live setting this music makes far more sense. It's the closest thing to a religious experience I've had.

There are times I cannot listen to Takk because it's so emotionally impactful, which is why it's not #1 on my chart. But if based only on live experience, Takk would be #1 without a doubt.

Re: World album of the day (#243): Takk... by Sigur Rós

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 10:04:01 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 04/29/2013 14:04

This is one band that just does absolutely nothing for me. I just think they're incredibly boring. It's pretty, but it's also inoffensive and lightweight. I don't dislike them, per se, but I find it a chore sitting through a whole album. This was the first one I heard (I've given at least two of their others a fair chance too), and I went out and bought it following a friend's recommendation. I just... I just don't see what everyone else sees in them, I guess. Ah well, my loss.