Jonsi from Sigur Ros

We know names of many talented people, including musicians, who could not quench their need for self-expression by creative activities in one direction or with one and the same group of partners. It happens so sometimes that a band releases a number of warmly greeted albums, gathers sold-out concerts on the home soil and in far abroad, and its participants should be happy with everything. He Icelandic outfit Sigur Ros has been delivering powerful art-rock and psychedelic rock material for more than a decade. Until the latest times, everyone on the band was focused on its affairs solely; but then we saw something that was supposed to happen. The team’s leader, vocalist and guitarist, Jon ‘Jonsi’ Birgisson, decided that he needed some more channel for conveying his creative ideas. In 2009, the musician teamed up with Alex Somers and made a CD called Riceboy Sleeps. Many associated this act with some recession in the Sigur Ros life. Since then, the situation with the band has barely changed; and in the spring of 2010, Birgisson, this time working solely, released a studio record named Go.

Overcoming the language problem

As strange as it seems, the main trouble Jon had while preparing his new album, was not connected with his working apart from Alex, but… with his poor knowledge of English. Not it does not seem just a coincidence that even the title of the album, Go, is so simple and plain. The Icelander’s falsetto hinders the understanding of the words which are not easy to get as the man wrote them in a language he does not know flawlessly. The music here is a set of layers made of flutes and strings topped by Jon’s singing, exemplary for those who want their efforts to be called singing. This combination forms an amazingly light and pleasant spirit and makes your imagination picture vast territories of wild nature. You are set on a leisurely tour across forests and meadows without paying attention to what the guy is actually singing about. Because it is not about what he sings, but HOW he sings. Unable to distinguish the words and phrases, you will be likely to believe that he praises love for life, beauty of every day you live and opportunities given by tomorrow.

One long gorgeous song

It is not preferable to analyze this album evaluating every song, for the whole work is supposed to be taken as one hymn to easy being. For convenience, you can divide the whole list into epic songs (Go Dat, Tornado, or Hengilas) and powerful and energetic songs (Animalistic Arithmetic, or Around Us). All nice tracks of this CD are arranged in one and the same manner so that the record could turn into one strong emotional stream carrying you in one direction. This effort has only one tangible drawback, and this the said lyrics. Sometimes lines are so simplistic that you may wish the songs did not have them at all. When Jon is singing something free of actual words, it is a greater pleasure because you not forced to occupy your mind with getting the meaning. And the meaning here is not ciphered in words, but in emotions, passions, in what is understood by the soul instead of reason. Definitely, Go is a very impressive work. Now it is hard to predict the developments of Sigur Ros; but we do not have to worry about the musical future of Jon Birgisson.

Alex Bartholomew
27.04.2010