It's Strange Up North

What are they saying? Is that a man ? Two of the many irrelevant questions often asked when Sigur Ros are played. Whether they sing their native Icelandic, or in their own invened tongue (yes, really), I can't get enough of them.
                Sigur Ros' music is like an element of nature in itself. Indeed, since its use on Planet Earth it has become something of a media cliche to use their tunes as background for adverts or moments of high drama:  to convey a THIS-IS-HUGE moment.  In much the same way as X-Factor made Snow Patrol's music synonymous with the teary "life story" bits about each contestant.
                       Regardless of their grandiosity, and its exploitation by the media, it's ace stuff. Cinematic, operatic, camp, overblown, maudlin, ecstatic... are just a few of the adjectives that spring to mind. Each song follows a simple but brilliant formula.Slow, often piano driven verse with plangent warbling hinting at desolation, followed by an interlude building up momentum, before a massive release of strings, emotion and guitars. This is the Sigur Ros orgasm principle. 
                        Chris Martin is said to be a massive fan, and it's not inconceivable that Coldplay would produce this kind of music. Though only if the band were held hostage on an icy alien planet being shown sepia footage of their loved ones.....at gunpoint.....on a diet of just amphetamines and booze. You get the idea, a more leftfield dad rock band. Post dad rock, one could say. Incidentally, it's really good bath and driving music.
                There are elements of metal and more than a hint of classical in the sound. And it's in the swelling, majestic choruses (if you can call them that) in which you can hear both. These chorus-like eruptions are at once happy and sad, angry and resigned. Quite simply beautiful. And in their sheer volume, completely overpowering. Like being hit in the face by a waterfall.
    Try 2008s  Með suð í eyrum vi spilum endalaust or Takk as an introduction, then ( ) or Agaetis Byrjun . The latter two albums being sligtly more desolate sounding. (We're talking global as opposed to cosmic apocalypse). There is a hell of a lot more to them than Hoppipolla (the Planet Earth track), and I think, despite its filmic nature, the music deserves to be taken on its own. It warrants a dark room and an expensive pair of headphones, not to be experienced as mere background ambience.
  Hopelandic (the non- language they use in many songs) should be in everyone's life. Right, Im off to have a bath....