Sigur Ros Med Sud I Vid Spilum Endalaust On 2 x 180g Vinyl LP

Inspired by the unfettered feeling of the acoustic performances filmed during Heima, Sigur Rós adopted a looser approach in creating their fifth album Med Sud I Vid Spilum Endalaust. The album consequently is fresher and more human than anything they’ve previously recorded.

Rough edges, cracked notes, and the sound of fingers on strings are audible resulting in tracks (e.g. “Íllgresi”) that prove to be the band's sparsest and most affecting work to date. Worry not though, plenty of electric guitar can be heard throughout the album ensuring Sigur Rós’ commitment to challenging sonic limitations.

Med Sud I Vid Spilum Endalaust is truly a groundbreaking album for Sigur Rós. It’s the first time they’ve attempted to write, record, mix, release and support (by touring) an album in the same year. Notoriously known for their laborious writing/recording style and their Icelandic roots, Sigur Rós decided to record an album outside of Iceland for the first time. Recording, mixing and mastering sessions took place in such un-Reykjavik cities as New York (Sear Sound and Sterling Sound), London (Abbey Road and Assault & Battery) and Havana. The result is pretty much their “leave home” album, the anti-Heima.

The opening track, “Gobbledigook”, is a manifesto setter with its shifting/no time signature. On the last track, “All Alright,” Sigur Rós find themselves singing a song solely in English for the first time. The seventh track, “Ára Bátur,” was performed with a full orchestra and the London Oratory Boys Choir. This was recorded in one take with no overdubs and the result was 90 people playing at once and just one perfect take. This is their first album working with Flood (U2, Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey) and the first since their debut to not be recorded with Ken Thomas. It was a true co-production, one that found Sigur Rós breaking out of old molds/habits. Double LP on high quality 180g vinyl.

“Sigur Rós’ fifth album is the Icelandic band’s most worldly, varied and impetuous. The band achieves a new unity in variety here, winding from near-glam romp and fireside-folk warmth to slow-climb grandeur with an attention to the repeated payoff in a sturdy hook and hum-along chorus.” (4 Stars) – Rolling Stone

“Old-fashioned psychedelic grandeur is revived with otherwordly majesty and inexorable crescendos, a typically majestic but uncharacteristically summery album, with jolts of percussive energy and connotations of sunlight and air.” - New York Times

Sigur Ros Med Sud I Vid Spilum Endalaust Track Listing

1. Gobbledigook
2. Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
3. Gódan daginn
4. Við Spilum Endalaust
5. Festival
6. Með suð í eyrum
7. Ára bátur
8. Íllgresi
9. Fljótavík
10. Straumnes
11. All Alright