Sigur Rós - ‘Takk…’

'Takk…' is, according to the band (with Icelandic tongue firmly placed in Icelandic cheek), a "rock'n'roll record" - and it certainly is on occasion played both loud and fast - but few of the clichés of the genre come through Sigur Rós intact. In fact, listening to 'Takk…' it is not images of rebellion or off-the-peg degradation that comes to mind, but more a feeling of being washed clean by music. Even when they rock Sigur Rós provide a clear spot of, dare I say, sanctity, and, at the end, of the record the prevailing feeling is one of peace.

Sigur Ros have occupied a unique place in the hearts and record collections of a knowing cognescenti since 1999, when their second album, 'Ágætis Byrjun', broke cover outside Iceland to become a huge word-of-mouth hit, selling nearly 600,000 records internationally.

Described by Q Magazine at the time as "the last great record of the 20th century" (and voted the Greatest Record of the Century at home), 'Ágætis Byrjun''s strange and alien beauty seemed to fill an emotional void nobody had previously noticed existed. And, all of a sudden, four boys from Reykjavik, still in their early twenties, were swept up in a tide of praise, opportunity and expectation, which was perhaps the antithesis of the environment that created them.
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