Sigur Ros – Hvarf-Heim

10 April 2008, Jessica @ 8:34 pm Sigur Ros Hvarf Heim

Okay, so I’ve been totally putting this off for a long time, so this review is way past due. Sigur Ros is the first post-rock band I got into, which is almost a weird thing to say to some, considering lead member Jonsi’s peculiar vocals that generally sends people either running away or charging for more. Sigur Ros created what I believe is a new strain of post-rock, and if not all, then in part, due to the falsetto vocals and use of pretty heavy reverb. For me personally, I find the vocals are more part of the instrumentation than a feature in itself because it adds to Sigur Ros’ overall ethereal sound. I don’t think I’d be able to handle the falsetto if not for its awesome blend with the music.

Sigur Ros, hailing from Iceland, was huge after their 1999 release Agaetis byrjun, followed by a fantastic () in 2002. After their 2005 release Takk…, there hasn’t really been new Sigur Ros material since. Hvarf-Heim (2007) is a two-CD compilation album that features a couple of new releases and live and studio versions of older tunes found from all four previously released albums. (Side note: Sigur Ros’ DVD film Heima was also released at the same time and is worth checking out, especially if you’ve checked out their music videos and enjoyed them). The first CD, Hvarf contains two unreleased songs, one song released as a single about a month before the compilation’s release, and two tracks originally featured on their debut album, Von (1997). The second CD, Heim, consists of six live performances of previously released songs.

Focusing on the unreleased songs…they definitely don’t shy away from what I’ve known Sigur Ros to be. There’s still the falsetto hums that accompany the guitar and bass melody, with great use of soft percussions, strings, synths, and chord progressions. And they still make use of the bow guitar playing. Sigur Ros sets itself away from the Jimmy-Page-bow-guitar by using a lot of reverb, making it sound more like the mating calls of a whale…it sounds cooler than I’ve described, trust me. That being said, Sigur Ros does use a lot of reverb overall to create that etherealness we all love. “Salka” definitely fits into the whole idea of “if you want to know what Sigur Ros sounds like, listen to this”. It incorporates everything Sigur Ros has put into their music from day one. “Hijomalind” is a little more poppish? I might say. There’s still the ethereal feel in it with the use of the synths, but it’s “harder” (and with Sigur Ros, you can’t really get that hard) and more “rock” than most of their stuff (its former title was “Rokklagio”–which means “The Rock Song”…go figure). Did I say “Hijomalind” was hard? Scratch that, “I Gaer” is harder and with the creepy twinkling melody and hard bass, it makes the song even so irresistible. “I Gaer” is a little creepy sounding at first, like what you’d expect in a horror flick with dead zombie babies (kind of creepy like their Von album).There’s some good incorporation of metal; makes it sound deathly beautiful, and Jonsi’s vocals are absolutely fitting in this type of sound.

Heim is nice. I mean niiiiiiice. I’ve never been able to see Sigur Ros live (I missed both chances back in 2005 and 2006), so it’s always cool to listen to what the differences between the studio and live versions of songs are (YouTube squishes everything into a minuscule file that it sucks out all the good acoustics). I friggin’ enjoy Heim to the max…the max! All you have to do is get a good pair of headphones and blast this shit up. It really is terrific, especially because it comprises of all the songs I really enjoy in each album. There’s barely any reverb compared to the studio recordings, too, so it’s super cool to listen to what would be considered their “raw prime.” Oh man…I want to see them live so bad. Anyway, enough whining.

Overall, I would say Hvarf-Heim is a suitable buy for die-hard fans of Sigur Ros. If you’re thinking about getting into Sigur Ros without having to buy each of the albums, this album might also be worth your while…though I would stick with checking out each album in itself because they offer so much more (of course!). Still, I for one am definitely proud of this purchase, and if you’ve been thinking about getting this album, well, stop! and get it, damn it!

Here are two songs, one from each side/CD (they were pretty much arbitrarily picked since I basically liked everything):

AWmusic