Sigur Ros
Takk
Geffen, 2005

By now (now being September 13th, 2005, the day of Takk's release,) Sigur Ros has become an almost legendary group of musicians, and with good reason. In this, their fourth full length, they, once again, demonstrate an outstanding regard for high production values and the progression of their ultimately unique song-writing style.

In fact, the only real disappointing element surrounding Takk is its packaging — although such is still of a definite high quality, it is, unfortunately, of a non-standard size, being slightly larger than a standard digipak or jewel case. Initially, I also expressed disappointment with the lack of a booklet, until I came to realize that Sigur Ros's past releases have been very minimal in the use of text in the included booklet; in fact, ( )'s booklet is simply composed of pages of slightly translucent paper with light etchings of foliage across them. While aesthetically interesting, it may be that Geffen (perhaps as this is Sigur Ros's first release on the mega-label) opted to pass on something they perceived as having little to no value.

Stylistically, Takk stands somewhere between ( ) and Agaetis Byrjun, and quite strongly at that. It is also worth noting that this album is undeniably cheerful, and tracks like "Se lest" demonstrate this extraordinarily well, complete with a string and horn section that reminisces vaguely of a carnival — though such is undoubtedly a lacking description, especially for a band with a sound so dynamic. Additionally, lyrically speaking, Takk is written primarily in Icelandic, a departure from the group's usual use of their created (and supposedly meaningless) language, Hopelandic.

Takk almost requires multiple listens to be fully enjoyed — not to say that Takk is difficult or "takes some getting used to," but its depth is so immense that a single listen would be doing your ears an injustice, of sorts. Like most truly great music, a single listen may yield intense emotions and immense aural pleasure, multiple listens yields much more.

Matthew Montgomery
musicGeek.org