Sigur Ros: Takk... : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Takk . . . is the most accessible album yet from Sigur Ros -- if a band featuring a falsetto vocalist moaning Icelandic and/or nonsense syllables over a slow symphonic-rock background could ever be considered accessible. Lighter and more piano-driven than the Reykjavok quartet's previous three albums, Takk . . . suggests a far more abstract Coldplay stripped of their stadium bombast. The majestic guitar climaxes that marked Sigur Ros' 1999 breakthrough album, Agaetis Byrjun , are fewer and farther between. Here, the guitars are generally restrained, augmented by orchestral flourishes and tinkling keyboards, while the steady rhythm of "Glosoli" sounds as if it's supplied by boots trudging over snow-covered tundra. With strings, horns, backward sound effects, an atypically straightforward vocal and a naggingly catchy keyboard hook that another band could make millions with, "Hoppipolla" offers itself as the autumn's feel-good anthem. Radio won't get it, but the iPods will understand.