SIGUR ROS - HVARF/HEIM

You see, when i was a young man of 16, this came out. I remember saying "Oh, I gotta buy that", but at the time, iTunes was updating to iTunes plus, and i REFUSED to pay for a 128kb AAC audio file of these fine young tracks with slacks. So I told my 3rd wife at the time, "Millie, pack up the bags and sell the worm farm - we gotta buy a physical copy of the Sigur Ros album!".

Flash forward 2.5 years later - I'm at the Boston Public Library and I see this there and think "You know, Millie and I never bought that Sigur Ros album before I grew my legs back" so i checked it out and put it on my computer, along with Wire's "Object 47", Silver Jews' "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea" and 6 others.

You see, here's what this is:
2 EPs.

One is like an odds and sods (kind of like the Who's "Odds and Ends" LP) and the other is live versions.

Let's go by disc:

1. HEY!! They're speaking in that funny fake language again!!! YEAAA! Oh man, here's the other thing - sophmore year, I was obsessed with this band. So, naturally, I downloaded a ton of mp3s from their site including one called 'The Rock song" - well guess what, a STUDIO version of that is here! But honestly, it lacks in comparison to that bootleg I had. It just lacks OMPH! There's also an outtake from the album ( ) and two re-recordings from the first album that I enjoy more. The only weak track is "I Gaer", in which they play prog rock and it sounds like the most boring Pink Floyd crap ever. Seriously. I'd rather watch Bob Geldof shave Bono's eyebrows than hear this hoopplanonsense. That's actually the name of the fake sigur ros language - hooppllaannelasnonse, which goes great with turkey on wheat.

DISK 2 is the live stuff. And man, is the fidelity GREAT! But first, what the hell?? You put two songs from ( ) on here, but you give them titles! Man, if I was icelandic, partially blind, and had a faux-hawk, you bet I'd leave those track names unlisted to have the listener be suprised when they heard the sweet sounds of the one that goes "da du duh duh duaaa daud duhda daa dada duh duhda da da da" with the ebow for 5 minutes. Or the one that goes "you sat on fire, heroo, you're so hello, the fire" for 5 minutes. Oh, and hopefully you liked that re-recording of "Von", because there's a LIVE one here too! That's right, 2 versions of the same song that was released in 1997. COOL! There are two songs from ( ), one from Takk..., two from Agaetis Byrjun and one from Von.

In all seriousness, it's a great release. If you enjoy Iceland, fake languages, and uplifting music, then you'll love Silkworm, who I'm reviewing next!

OVERALL RATING - Piano Phase
KEY TRACKS - Salka, Samskeyti, Vaka