Von:Sigur Rós

Title: Von

Label: One Little Indian

Genre: experimental prog-rock

Rating: 5.8 of 7

When released in 1997, Von, Sigur Ros’s first full-length, caused little stir and brought only a little attention to the Icelandic creative powerhouses. Then in 1999 they dropped Agætis Byrjun which launched them to international success and the devout attention of prog-rockers everywhere. They followed that up with an even better record simply called, which they actually created a new language to sing in (if that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is). They single-handedly put Iceland on the musical map raised their status to the likes of Radiohead, but not as accessible. This was their hard-to-find album that only devout fans could get their hands on until now. Re-released with no changes or enhancements, it is amazing that a band could be so mind-blowingly creative on their first album. The only downside to this album is that it runs well over an hour with really only 3 radio-friendly songs (read under 7 minutes and accessible to a listening audience unfamiliar with experimental music, ie SC). So stick to the three picks and enjoy.

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