Sigur Rós’ Gold: Warm and Spiritual Art from Icy Reykjavik

I’m not sure what is in the water in Reykjavik, but this town in Iceland has produced two of the most influential modern artists in music; Björk and Jõnsi from Sigur Rós. Both share a love of music and experimentation. They can perform more traditional musical structures, like Björk’s work on Debut or Post and Sigur Rós’ record Kveikur. I mean…I would not call Kveikur a basic record, but they use traditional musical instruments, which by Sigur Rós’ standards is quite conservative. However, they can each stretch the form to new boundaries, which Björk does expertly well on the track Stonemilker and Sigur Rós does on this record.

Sigur Rós is a trio made up of Jõnsi, Georg Hólm and Kjartan Sveinsson. The three are broken into guitarist, keyboards and bass, but to designate traditional musical roles to these artists is like saying LeBron James plays forward…which is to say it’s meaningless. The one real distinction is that Jõnsi makes up a vast majority of the vocals. Musically, the track Gold takes on this warm and expansive landscape that feels both limitless and emotionally grounded. The track eases in with some traditional keyboard, but then flows into largely single notes of synth layered over an ethereal electro background. An occasional thump of what sounds like a Celtic drum gives the track some needed grounding and heart. The mix of high level syth ether with more organic sounding instruments is a good move. Without that grounding you could get the feeling that you are drifting away in the endless void of space.

Lyrically, like with most Sigur Rõs tracks, it’s just a vibe. Jõnsi and the gang are known for making up and entire language for their music, so the vocal is more about portraying emotion than some concrete meaning. Having said that, Jõnsi sings in English for this track. You can pick up “at the end of the day / we all / we all / die anyway” as Jõnsi’s vocal drifts off into the nothingness of syth space. There are also references to the soul and a “beautiful day” throughout the track. His vocal is slow and stretched out, but with his classic falcetto that you feel as if an angel is singing to you as you travel to the afterlife. Gold has a very spiritual tone that I really connected with.

Sigur Rós is a band that is constantly pushing music’s form and structure, which can turn some people off. However, I think Gold is one of their most emotionally connecting and approachable tracks in the last few years. The track’s core emotional hook keeps you grounded as they musically explore the space. I can listen to this track for hours on end and will always get lost in Jõnsi’s beautiful vocal. This is the track they play in heaven.

Listen to Gold