7th album for the Icelanders of Sigur Rós who, less than a year after a "Valtari", come back to us with this "Kveikur" announced as fundamentally different from its predecessor. The first listening of this opus however pushes us to put this statement into perspective.
Indeed, Sigur Rós continues to play aerial Rock in long vaporous and melancholic tracks. And the evolution is really minimal, so much so that when listening to "Yfirbord", we clearly have the feeling to have come back in 2002, at the time of their 3rd album (which because of its absence of name is often identified as "()"). Luckily, this is one of their best albums to date.
The band always seems to want to try to transcribe in an orchestral way a natural beauty, without occulting its darkest aspects. Indeed, if the interpretation, which benefits from complex and delicate arrangements, is clearly turned towards beauty, purity and spirituality, the ambiences which emerge from this "Yfirbord" sometimes exhale a disturbing darkness and melancholy. Some digressions, even going as far as noisy sonorities, are there to remind us that Sigur Rós does not give exactly in the Easy Listening. Nevertheless, and even if this record sometimes has a slightly more pronounced rock tension than in the past, it would be a bit exaggerated to talk about a surprise effect.
And one can only be delighted when listening to "Brennisteinn" whose intro follows a bit the steps of their neighbours from Wardruna or of "Kveikur", carried by an aggressive bass and biting rhythms, and in which the power and lyricism of the band have never been so well married. If these two tracks are at the same time the most striking and the most nervous of this record - which may be one of the reasons that pushed many reviewers to see in this album the band's "rock turn" - Sigur Rós proves to be just as convincing when he invites us on "Yfirbord" to a stroll in a cottony and virginal North, stripped of all aggressiveness.
With the exception of "Isjaki", whose repetitive side doesn't lead to the state of trance that it could/should have generated, Kveikur is thus faultless. Diving into the group's universe remains a source of troubled pleasure and fragmentary intoxication. If Sigur Rós doesn't plant there a new unavoidable stone in the garden of rock classics, he offers us a nice trip.