Sigur Ros : Agaetis Byrjun

Something different. Emotional. Maybe a little over the top at times, but a cool album.
- Yebobaba, 11/12/2001, USA

Despite inscrutable lyrics sung in a dreadful (if sincere) falsetto, and rudimentary musical content with endless repetition, this blissed-out pop does have its catchy moments. It does not, however, live up to the praise heaped upon it.
- Brian A Skiff, 09/24/2001, USA

Totally unexplainable.
- G Drakeley, 07/30/2001, USA

Full title is: Agaetis Byrjun

The All Music Guide rating for this album on a 1-9 scale (9=best) is: 8

This is the All Music Guide suggested introduction to this artist's work.

The All Music Guide rating for this album among this artist's works on a 1-9 scale (9=best) is: 8

  Georg Holm - Bass, Vocals
  Jon Thor Birgisson - Guitar, Vocals
  Kjartan Sveinsson - Keyboards
  Orri Pall DýRason - Drums
  Sigur Ros - Main Performer

Two years passed since Sigur Ros ' debut. By this time, the band recruited in a new keyboardist by the name of Kjartan Sveinsson and it seems to have done nothing but take the band to an even higher state of self-awareness. Even on aesthetic matters, Sigur Ros entitle their sophomore effort not in a manner to play up the irony of high expectations (a la the Stone Roses ' Second Coming ), but in a modest realization. This second album -- Agaetis Byrjun -- translates roughly to Good Start. So as talented as Von might have been, this time out is probably even more worthy of dramatic debut expectations. Indeed, Agaetis Byrjun pulls no punches from the start. After an introduction just this side of one of the aforementioned Stone Roses ' backward beauties, the album pumps in the morning mist with 'Sven-G-Englar' -- a song of such accomplished gorgeousness that one wonders why such a tiny country as Iceland can musically outperform entire continents in just a few short minutes. The rest of this full-length follows such similar quality. Extremely deep strings underpin falsetto wails from the mournfully epic ( 'Viaar Vel Tl Loftarasa' ) to the unreservedly cinematic ( 'Avalon' ). One will constantly be waiting to hear what fascinating turns such complex musicianship will take at a moment's notice. At its best, the album seems to accomplish everything lagging post-shoegazers like Spiritualized or Chapterhouse once promised. However, at its worst, the album sometimes slides into an almost overkill of sonic structures. Take 'Hjartaa Hamast (Bamm Bamm Bamm),' for instance: there are so many layers of heavy strings, dense atmospherics, and fading vocals that it becomes an ineffectual mess of styles over style. As expected, though, the band's keen sense of Sturm und Drang is mostly contained within an elegant scope of melodies for the remainder of this follow-up. Rarely has a sophomore effort sounded this thick and surprising. Which means that 'Good Start' might as well become of the most charming understatements to come out of a band in years. ~ Dean Carlson, All Music Guide