Sigur Ros; Hvarf/Heim (EMI) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007

 |   |  <1 min read

Sigur Ros: Von
Sigur Ros; Hvarf/Heim (EMI) BEST OF ELSEWHERE 2007

More mysterious loveliness on a double-disc which, in the release schedule of most bands, might have seemed like a stop-gap measure: previously unreleased tracks and rarities, and stripped-back versions of other material.

If Eric Clapton or the Arctic Monkeys had done this you'd be yawning.

But Sigur Ros from Iceland create such eerie sonic landscapes -- some stretching to an 10 engrossing minutes -- that this has the feel of yet another beguiling chapter in a story you hope will never end.

Sigur Ros have, quite literally, created their own language (Hopelandic they call it) and make the music -- which owes very little to rock, even post-rock -- to match it. Enchanting.

And if it didn't appear in too many other lists of "best albums" it is because I believe too many other writers gave a cursory listen or looke dat the cover and took it to be that stop-gap thing.

Good Lord, a hiatus should always be this good.

By the way, the doco-DVD Heima which is the companion to this double disc is a gem.

Best music DVD of the year? Very likely.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (Proper)

Loudon Wainwright III: Older Than My Old Man Now (Proper)

On the second song here the venerable Wainwright names his "favourite protagonist. Me" and that song follows the autobiographical The Here and Now in which he counts down marriages,... > Read more

Tab Benoit with Louisiana Leroux: Night Train to Nashville (Elite)

Tab Benoit with Louisiana Leroux: Night Train to Nashville (Elite)

Blues singer/guitarist Benoit recorded this album live in Nashville in 2006 with his band Louisiana Leroux the night before he picked up the BB King award for entertainer of the year and best... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

Elsewhere Art . . . Ringo Starr

Elsewhere Art . . . Ringo Starr

It seems harmless fun to make up things like Beatles albums or post parodies of academic articles about pop music. But every now and again people take something at Absurd Elsewhere seriously,... > Read more

McMinnville, Oregon: Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose folly

McMinnville, Oregon: Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose folly

In a flat field outside the small town of McMinnville in northwest Oregon is a building so large that cars visibly slow on the highway so the occupants can take a look at it. Even in America --... > Read more