Ágætis byrjun

I liked this album a lot around the time I was 18 (though not as much as the parentheses album). I thought it was "experimental," and it helped introduce me to post-rock, for which I am thankful. Sigur Rós can be quite "cinematic" when you're 18 and listening on headphones while you walk around on a rainy fall day. On relisten, though, it is maybe a bit too glossy and schmaltzy for me; it may be slightly unusual, but it's all a bit too clean and smooth, and I now hear a zillion movie/TV syncs that sound similar to this style of epic melodrama.

Peak mood

Listening to this album feels like your best friend embracing you and them telling you how life is pain, but how life also is so much beauty and happiness if we let it reach us.

I'm pretty sure I've heard this album before. I listen to a lot of post-rock, but somehow Sigur Ros just doesn't do it for me. I like my post-rock to be more rockin' and this is all pretty sleepy.

I liked a lot about this album. It maybe got a little boring at times, but it was good.

First of all, I love Icelandic music, literature, and the Icelandic language, so I was genuinely excited when this album appeared in my recommendations one morning. I went into it expecting to love it.
The opening immediately caught my attention with its eerie, atmospheric soundscapes and unique sense of space. It felt mysterious and promising, and I was intrigued by where it was going.
Unfortunately, that feeling didn't last. While the first part of the album drew me in, the second half gradually lost my interest. The songs began to blur together, and what initially felt immersive eventually became repetitive and emotionally static. I kept waiting for a moment that would re-engage me, but it never quite arrived.
I can absolutely appreciate the craftsmanship, the haunting ambience, the beautiful use of Jónsi's falsetto, and the cinematic production. It's easy to understand why this album is so highly regarded and influential. However, despite respecting what it achieves artistically, it simply didn't connect with me on a personal level. I wanted to like it much more than I actually did.

Alright, I was very opponent to their music since their beginnings until this day. This is deep, emotional, sublime even, like a trip to frosty fairyland. Will listen more often.

Not heard much before from this band … only really Hoppípolla. Really liked it and will be listening to more 👍

Today is probably the day that I needed the unbridled catharsis that this album provides and I am so thankful to the generator for that. This is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever conceived.

10/10 [KEEP]

Honestly way better than I was expecting

I like it it's nice.

wut

The album hits some really interesting moods. Like one that I think is cool is the transition into Viorar Vel til Loftrarasa (track 7). But I think the whole album is cool, if a bit long, but would you really want to rush this type of music?

Woah. I want to lie in the deepest part of a ship in the pitch black on a rolling sea while this echos through the hull. Is it whales singing? Is it God?

I'm on album 396 of this project. I've had all kinds of good, bad, and mediocre. This is only the 2nd album that absolutely devastated me right out of the gate. This well now be in my 5-star regular rotation.

Honestly feel like if I listened to this enough, it could get up to a 4/5, but for now it's sitting in the middle of the pack for me.

First time I ever listened to it (Months back), it would have easily been a two. It's chill to the point of kinda being boring, but this time around it's more chill to the point of being chill (lol).

But what I'm wanting from this album is to really do something for me to hook onto really, and it's kinda defying that. Which, don't get me wrong, is to it's credit. But this album is feeling like the Icelandic Cocteau Twins, but the Cocteau Twins were laser focused and had hooks on Heaven or Los Vegas, whereas this one really doesn't.

So yeah. Very good album. Just not something I am feeling at this moment in time. I suspect if I listen to it more, it'll click more and more though.

First exposure to sigur ros. Ethereal music, and finally something fresh in this list full of white dad rock.
Highlights: svefn-g-englar, vithrar vel til loftarasa

Such beautiful music.

Love me a bit of Sigur Rós. This isn't my favourite album from them but this is still an absolute essential when it comes to post-rock music. Fantastic instrumental work on this with several stunningly beautiful compositions up and down this thing. I'm not too sure what's going on lyrically but Sigur Rós has never been a band that I go to for the lyrics anyway as the vocals basically just act as another instrument in the mix. I do think they would fully perfect this sound on their next album, but this is still great in its own right and deserves all of the praise that it gets.

Favs: Svefn-g-englar, Starálfur, Ný batterí, Olsen olsen

Least Fav: Hjartað hamast

9.4/10

This album is really glazed, not my thing personally but I can see how someone would enjoy this. You can really get lost in this album, kind of feels like you're in one of those documentaries about glaciers or something. The made up singing adds an otherwordly element to this album as well. May need to relisten, but it was a bit of a sleep inducer at times and the runtime is beefy.

Usually when I'm really excited about an album, I begin my review by typing out a memorable lyric. That'll be hard to do for this one. Unless I go TJUUUUUUUUUUUUU, TJUUUUUUUUUUUU

I love this Icelandic nonsense. I love how it sounds boyish and innocent, as well as massively ambitious. I love its occasionally cheesy chord progressions, as if the octet is playing on my actual heartstrings. I love the unorthodox percussion that is sometimes there and sometimes not but it is always at the perfect time. It's beautiful. It's occasionally horrific.

I love the shots of noise between songs that last just long enough to blend into the identity of the song itself. I love the loose narrative of a child being born, a new life, starting over, that can actually be applied to the band themselves making this album after a debut that kinda sucked. I love the anthemic melody of Olsen Olsen, a song which I can only assume is about Mary-Kate and Ashley. I love the title of the track afterwards, which loosely translates to "good weather for airstrikes." That's such a kickass sentence. And it fits the music! It's grand and epic like a gorgeous sunny day, but that leaves you vulnerable. It disarms you. It makes you weak.

Sigur Ros has a fantastic sound across their whole career. If this list is just about hearing albums that are good, you could put a lot of their discography on here. But realistically, Ágætis Byrjun is the only one that warrants inclusions on this list. Later on in their career, their brand of post-rock became more accessible, less experimental. That's only because this album stuck the landing. Albums like Takk... are big and beautiful, sure, but in a way they're end up being less ambitious. Because the band knew it was going to work. This album was a massive leap of faith, a hyperextension into a new realm of post-rock that is more personal, timid, quieter and yet more explosive than ever before. And it worked.

Oh yeah, and it's super Radiohead sometimes.