Sigur Ros - Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur

Being blunt, there’s a bit of a feeling floating around that Sigur Rós may be becoming a bit of a cliche. Not of their own choosing, you understand, more that of the people that keep sticking ‘Hoppipolla’ on every advert, film and sports montage going, like it’s a quick and easy sticker with ‘epic’ scrawled on it in thick, black marker.

Of course, anyone who was at Latitude earlier this year has no such worries, treated as they were to a stage slow so wonderously magnificent that any crushingly beige fears found themselves blown away instantly. Sigur Rós, you see, seem quite comfortable with the idea of selling a few more records. ‘Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur’ (or ‘Within Me A Lunatic Sings’, for those of us without ridiculous linguistic skills) is more accessible.

Of course, accessible is a bit of an abstract concept for a song sung entirely in Icelandic; not exactly the kind of thing they’re teaching in secondary schools far and wide. Putting such plodding concerns to one side, however, there’s such a wave of positivity and building energy that it’s almost other worldly. Jón þor Birgisson’s vocal (and yes, we did have to copy and paste that - Ed) is as distinctive as ever, conjuring a kind of aesthetic that few, if any, others can.

Listening to this, we’d quite happily believe Lord Of The Rings was a documentary, that unicorns were real and that we could hop down the bottom of the garden for a conversation with the garden gnome. Even those TV types won’t manage to ruin this one.