Defending the indefensible – 4: Sigur Rós

It's not meaningful. It's not cathartic. It's not emotive.

It's not quietly or movingly or even evocatively beautiful. It certainly isn't minimal (Sigur Rós utilise some of the most overblown production and instrumentation techniques in modern-day rock). It isn't ethereal. It doesn't transcend. It's music designed for film producers and Tom Cruise apologists - new age, by any definition, cod-classical and dull as particularly dull dishwater that's had all the Fairy Liquid soap bubbles sucked out of it by three layers of grease.

It's Jonny Greenwood or Damon Albarn fucking around with non-melodies and not-even formulated ideas and pretending that a lack of structure makes music more interesting. Slowing stuff down doesn't make music more 'serious' or more 'soulful', it just makes it slower. It's music designed for media people to take designer drugs to (i.e. music that doesn't stand up on its own merits), music that can be used in film trailers and on TV programmes the world over to signify 'sensitivity' or 'the slow fade' because it doesn't intrude or upset for one second. It's even vacuous enough to be used for sports coverage: the same heady 'euphoric' great sweeps of emotion and pomp signifying absolutely nothing.

In another age, Sigur Rós would have been called 'elevator music', but that's an insult to those fine citizens of Muzak.

It's like Radiohead minus Yorke's stubbly chin, with all the pretension and pseudo-prog rock leanings left in. It's music that can't exist without visuals, because it doesn't hold up. It's music that soars and peaks and soars and peaks without any understanding of why it would want to do that. It's music that makes me want to listen to Girls Aloud or Pussycat Dolls just to purge myself (and trust me, little makes me want to do that). It's music for people who used to stick 'Campaign for Real Rock' stickers on their guitar cases.

It is Sigur Rós.

P.S. (lifted from the Sigur Rós forum, and pretty well argued at that)

maaaa quote 3-7-2009 at 08:49

I've spent some time with Everett True in the past, including one day at his playing records in the indie 1980s. When he told me that he preferred The Razorcuts to The Byrds because he hated the canon of rock, I knew we could never really get along. For him, music is about ownership and building an identity (as it is for all of us, but most if us don't build such a public persona) - and so liking The Razorcuts, people he actually knew and could champion, helped make him central to the scene. The limits to ET's approach are summed up by his relationship to Nirvana, getting close to Kurt and the group in indie days, and retaining access during the period of mega success. This must have been a dream come true. But in terms of music, Smells Like teen Spirit, while a great record, has nothing to do with indie, with Beat Happening, K Records anymore. It's a straight great rock record, like More Than A feeling by Boston. Can you imagine ET admitting that More Than A Feeling was a great rock record? I'm sure he'd rather die. Which brings us to SR. Nothing he says here can take away the thought of the group playing ("new shit") Von to a hut full of family and friends in Heima. To me that is juat an inarguably honest, pure and musical performance. If it all ended tomorrow for SR, these people would all be making beautiful music somewhere or other, even if just for themselves. They're not a rock critic backed or created band particularly. They're a bunch of hillbillies who gave us a miracle and kept giving more. You get more sense out of 14 year olds posting comments on YouTube about Untitled 8 than Everett gives us here. He is good on 60s pop and girl groups though, and personally I owe him a debt for showing me how great the Supremes are.