“When we do this, we always talk about each album as if it might be the last,” says Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi in a press release about the Icelandic post-rock pioneers’ now seldom returns to the studio. “We’re always thinking about climate change, doom-scrolling and going to hell…”
Crikey. So Jónsi seems quite understated when says of the landscape that surrounded the making of their long-awaited eighth studio LP that “the world felt a bit bleak making this album” – yet fear not – “but maybe there is hope. When there is darkness, there is light.”
It’s been a decade since Sigur Rós last released an album, although it may not seem like it due to their omnipresence at festivals, regular spell-binding live shows and the fact that you’re often only minutes away from ‘Sæglópur’ or ‘Hoppípolla’ soundtracking some cute little eagle chicks taking flight in an Attenborough doc.
In the time between records, drummer Orri Páll Dýrason left the band amidst his denials of sexual assault, and the band fought and won a gruelling battle over alleged tax evasion back in Iceland. Now they’re back with multi-instrumentalist Kjartan Sveinsson who rejoined after leaving the band in 2012, completing the trio with Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm.
Released with barely a day’s notice, the resulting ‘ÁTTA’ is entirely at odds with the violent, industrial and anti-commercial 2013 predecessor ‘Kveikur’. Joined by the 32-piece London Contemporary Orchestra conducted by Robert Ames, here are 10 tracks of luscious but measured drama.
From the glitchy but soaring opener ‘Glóð’ through to the tender and intimate ‘Blóðberg’, the blossoming ‘Skel’, the doomily cinematic ‘Mór’, ‘Andrá’s subtly building sense of triumph or the aptly-titled warming balm of ‘Gold’, ‘ÁTTA’ ultimately succeeds at what a good Sigur Rós record does best: it holds you.
The sprawling and glorious ‘8’ closes the album, ending with that heaven-sized sense of hope promised and best capturing the spirit of the album. You don’t need drums to pack a punch, and you don’t need to understand what’s being sung to feel it. There are no stories to cling to, just elemental emotion and a connection.
In that, ‘ÁTTA’ is at least the band’s best album since 2005’s monolithic ‘Takk’ made them a household name, and at most a record that gives Sigur Rós plenty more reason to exist in adding some pure and natural soul to this cold and unfeeling world.
