Sigur Ros - Takk: An Album That Changed My Life

When writing a feature that ends with ‘…changed my life’, there has to be many individual cases of poignant moments, especially when it comes to music.

When writing a feature that ends with €˜€changed my life€™, there has to be many individual cases of poignant moments, especially when it comes to music. For some, it€™s when they heard the first chords of Please Please Me by The Beatles in €˜62. For others, it€™s the opening riff of Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana in €˜91. Throw in the first 5 seconds of Wannabe by The Spice Girls and you have a lot of cultural shifts devoted to a few simple notes of a song.

But this was never the case for me. Sure, I know the lyrics to most of Nirvana€™s songs, could never tread the hallowed ground that McCartney/Lennon walked, and the less said about the Spice Girls the better. No for me, it was the first time I was recommended Takk€

Sigur Rós €“ Takk€ (Icelandic for €˜Thanks€™) is an album that solidified for me that nu-metal and pop punk were not the greatest genres to ever be produced by man. Post-Rock in nature yet heavily influenced by shoegaze, Takk€ is an album that exemplifies the motif that starting softly and sweetly yet ending in a devastating crescendo creates a sound that can only be heard to be believed.

Takk€ is mostly instrumental, in the sense that it relies heavily on the music rather than the lyrics. And that€™s a good thing. Not only are the band Icelandic, but they have invented their own language, a gibberish language, a series of sounds similar to scat yet enigmatic. They call it €˜Hopelandic€™; an amalgamation of Icelandic and nonsense words. Stay with me here. Hopelandic is lauded as being an emotive, musically-based set of non-lexical sounds that are meant purely as an accompaniment, and succeeds on every level. Because of these anonymous musings emanating from the falsetto Jónsi Birgisson, you can€™t help but get sucked into the ethereal vortex that the band brings.

What is surprising about this is that even if you have never heard of Sigur Rós, I guarantee that you have heard some songs off this album. Hoppípolla (Hopping into Puddles) has been used in marketing for the BBC€™s Planet Earth series, as well as any other reality TV show where there is a tense moment of sadness, only for it to be turned onto its head in elation (I€™m looking at you, X Factor€). Same as for Sé lest (I See A Train). If you haven€™t heard of these two songs, then I suppose the only way I could feel happiness for you is from your lack of experience with reality television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz8iEJeh26E

Glósóli (Glowing Sole) starts the action with a quiet trickle of sound from distorted guitars and pianos before rising up into a loud and in your face thunderbolt of life that is a perfect set-up for the rest of the album. Other stunners like Sæglópur (Lost at Sea), Mílanó(Milan) and Heysátan (The Haystack) show that Sigur Rós are not a one trick pony. These songs produce moments of quiet contemplation before snapping you back into whatever focus they give you; it doesn€™t take long before you realise that you€™re not simply listening to Takk€; you€™re being controlled by it.

And why has this album changed my life? Simple, really. After listening to Takk€ I purchased their previous three albums: ( ), gætis byrjun and Von. Thus, my new favourite band was discovered. And long may it continue.

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My name is Jay. You may have guessed. I am a writer, a blogger, a visionary, a lover. On occasion. Music, Technology and Sport are areas I would love to progress rapidly, as they are a core part of my life outside of writing. A myriad of interests take up the rest of my time, and when I’m not doing anything in particular, I’m doing very fascinating and significant stuff.