Ágætis byrjun

Not very exciting nor interesting. Ok to listen to once, but that’s about it. 2/5

Movie music. Really good movie music. 4/5.

I qyiite like a lot of Sigur Ros’s music. It’s ethereal relaxing quality felt like the perfect accompaniment to the drive round the m25 and back north. It certainly started that way, however as the album went on it just got a bit boring and slightly irritating

The dreaded "open an album, see the length, feel your heart drop" issue. The problem with making an album that's 1 hour, 11 minutes, is that you REALLY have to enjoy the artist to not get fed up of it.

They don't half drone on, eh? It's pretty, but also repetitive. And in parts beautiful, but also soooooo long. I feel like I should like it, but 1 have no intention of ever listening to it again.

Just not for me...

2/5

The Svefn-g-englar single was a perfect release - an introduction to this otherworldy band conjoring this sweeping, ambient, spacious windswept alien sounds. This album is twice as long as the 4-track single and a bit baggy - the extended strings section and trip hop adjacent stuff drag it down a bit. Also not being a first encounter with the band it's a bit less special. But even so, the highs (Viðrar vel til loftárása &
Svefn-g-englar especially) are pretty stunning: landscape painting as music - ethereal, dreamy, cathartic, spiritual, oceanic stuff.

The Good: We get to learn a new language!
The Bad: We find out it is made up…
The Ugly: Even if we try to learn both languages, the tongue fall will still kill you…

FUCK ME! That was great!

Don’t know what to say… I could make up a language to show appreciation, but why bother?
This was a moment of “thank you Mr D, thank you for creating the list, and me getting on the list train!”
Finally an album which I would never have listened to had it not been for the list.

The listening experience has been one of the most relaxing, one of the most emotive, one of the most attentive, one of the most replayed to date…

Will I start listening to the other workd from Sigur Ros? I fear to do so, as I might end up disappointed… I am sure that I will one day… for now, I will just cherish this album. An album which my wife hates, by the way…

5*

supposedly knowing the lyrics are critical to experience this album to its fullest. it feels unfair, but im not here for a reading exercise. the music is pleasant enough. this may be what radiohead sounds like to people who dislike radiohead

I’ve always heard this band’s name, but never really indulged in their discography. It is (actually, to my surprise) right up my alley. Maybe post-rock is one of my favourite genres? Probably. I was hearing a lot of things in this one that came after 1999. Looved the spaciousness on this one and honestly, I don’t have anything bad to say about it. So it’ll go to the 5 star wall.

I’m at a 10.

Something about Icelandic production really works, huh? The lyricism here is fantastically vivid when translated, giving each track the framework needed to really understand the emotional pull of each track, but even without them… I mean, it’s just a brilliantly produced album. It’s cinematic in scope, left for the imagination to paint a lot of the picture that the lyrics only loosely carry. They’re like a screenwriter’s notes for the director to try and make sense of, with the soundscape being the scenery in which to film in. It’s very hard to describe this album’s impact, because ultimately, everyone will be painting different scenes out of these lyrics, yet ones that are all vivid in the same way. A few tracks are more direct, namely the title track. It’s a lamentation over the band’s first album being a critical / commercial failure, yet looking at the bright side of life with it. They treated it as a good beginning, and they certainly lived up to their vow to make something better for this, their second album.

I have to give credit where it’s due to the vocals here; Jonsi Birgisson does a remarkable job of letting the vocals guide the direction of each track, & they feel equally as important as all of the orchestration & guitar / synth work that permeates this album. It’s very hard to describe how easily it all comes together, because it’s so flawlessly done that it just passes by without thinking too deeply about it. This whole album is entrancing in that sense; 10 minute pieces can flash by in an instant, yet each individual segment of each track feels like an adventure to explore or a glimmer of a lifetime one won’t experience. It genuinely sounds like how a dream feels, except without the waning memory that so often happens when you wake up.

I think the most fascinating piece here is “Olsen Olsen”, which is a track sung entirely in Fake Icelandic. Bjork used the same “language” on one of her albums, but only sparingly & in transitional phases, like missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Here, since it’s the entire track, it’s fully up to the brain to fill in the gaps, and I think people’s responses to that track in particular will express the full range of the album. At one point, I wrote down that it sounded like the dopamine hit of watching the sunset over a horizon on a summer day, with a wistful energy that tries to capture a magic that one rarely feels as they get older. The crowd bustling around at the end just felt like everyone’s shared experience ending as day turned to night. Of course, that’s just my take on it.

That track encapsulates the whole album, and I think it’s a remarkably rewarding one. It’s certainly one that I’ll come back to if I need a burst of inspiration, or if I just want to hear the fantastic orchestration on “Starálfur” again. You could do studies around the psychological impact of this album, even among the people who find it to be dull & trite, possibly exposing a lack of imagination or a differently wired experience that won’t allow music like this to connect to the brain so fruitfully. I think the entire thing is beyond worth listening to before you die, and I think it’s a 10.

(P.S.: I’m stunned that something like this was able to be produced in 1999. Even now, it feels incredibly fresh. Over in the U.S., we were listening to Smash Mouth, you know what I mean? No disrespect to All Star or anything, but the difference is striking.)

This album requires your full attention while simultaneously doing nothing to hold it. I definitely caught a few "hey that's kinda cool" moments throughout... and I'm sure I zoned out through a bunch more. Really tough to listen to and I honestly think it's not worth it.

Looks like already rated this 4.0 on RYM. Used to be quite a fun of these guys back in the day, but after finding the likes of Eno and similar this just doesn't cut it anymore for me as much, at least 3 stars here for sure, but maybe even 4. I still remember and love couple of tracks from this one!

Sigur Rós might be some people's idea of boring, but for me, they're as close to perfect as you can possibly get when it comes to producing weighty, dextrous and impactful post rock.

Their ability to invoke such a broad palette of eminently relatable moods through all aspects of their craft and with such a wealth of instrumentation is matched by precious few in the genre; Agætis Byrjun radiating warmth and grasping you into its embrace, whilst it often ebbs into colder, detached and more contemplative passages within the same songs. This, combined with the fascinating degree of flexibility in their songwriting approaches from track to track in terms of them generally following linear structures, but doing so in different sequences to one another to keep proceedings consistently interesting and fresh, and the mystical, yet simultaneously human element that underlines their "Hopelandic" vocal expressions, all culminates in a truly wonderful listening experience.

Absolutely no doubt in my mind, this is a five star album.

Bleak, chilly soundscapes - one track was dangerously close to Coldplay. Fine whilst I was running the vacuum cleaner around.

“Ágætis Byrjun” is undoubtedly Sigur Rós' best-known work. This type of ambient rock bears witness to a time when rock music was seeking a path beyond retro trends, and in fact, a year later, I made very similar music with a Norwegian band I was friends with.
From today's perspective, it was a mediocre experiment, but at the time it felt interesting, at least. In that sense, “Ágætis Byrjun” is still enjoyable to listen to today, but mainly as easy listening music in the background. On the other hand, it's worth knowing because Sigur Rós' ideas were later taken up and developed further by bands like Coldplay and Muse.
How do you rate an influential but mediocre album? I guess it's 5 for influence and 3 for quality, so 4 in total.

Lovely soundscape. Eno could learn a thing or two from these guys

I wasn't expecting to see post rock on this list, but it definitely needed to be included as a genre, and this pick is one of the most deserving ones. Beautiful album, from start to finish! Extremely good soundscape, atmosphere and instrumentation. It made me feel very relaxed and at peace. Most definitely a very interesting band and very different from the other things on here. They are their own thing. I am sure many people will find this boring and pretentious, but if you really appreciate the musicality and the overall sound design, you will get why this is incredible.

very nice and calming. helped me chill out on the train to scotland. i loved the drums

So creative and just incredible - very close to a 5 for me. The vocals are so soulful and beautiful, the instrumentals are so impressive and break rock conventions. It all blends very well together. Will be listening again!

Look, I understand this album is a mood. And it's not a bad mood, but it's just not my mood.

Beautiful on the ears. Olsen olsen launched this album into a 4 for me.