Sigur Ros: "Heima"

I recieved my Christmas present early this year. Though I still want that sweet pair of Bose headphones I saw at Target a few months ago, I am more than content to wait for those. For now I am just overjoyed to have gotten the Sigur Ros DVD "Heima". This is something I've wanted BADLY since first learning of it. Just about everything Sigur Ros has ever released is at the top of my list of "greatest music EVER". "Heima" is, for me, a must-have kind of thing.

I got it on Saturday and I haven't even watched the main documentary that gives the film it's title. Why not? Well, I found out when I bought it that there was a second disc included with over 2 hours of performances!!! Some are standard live shows ("Glosoli", "Se Lest", an absolutely stunning version of "Olsen Olsen", etc.) but there are also scenes of the band playing in the studio, in an open field, in an empty auditorium, etc.. All of the songs are interspersed with gorgeous shots of Iceland, it's people, it's locales,, it's uniqueness, it's beauty. It's a good variety.

I would have liked a typical set of on-stage concert performances but in the long run I think I'll come to appreciate what they've done here moreso. It will probably hold up to repeated viewings better than the usual, plus it shows just how "one-of-a-kind" this band is and always has been. There are just enough of the "concert" scenes to satisfy. The version here of "Se Lest" is amazing, with a small marching band showing up toward the end, emerging from behind the stage, marching into the audience and on out of the hall, it's relative cacaphony giving way to the light, airy soundscape of the string quartet, who continue to play the fragile strains the band so brusquely disrupted. I've already mentioned "Olsen Olsen", which is quickly becomming one of my all-time favorite Sigur Ros songs. They play it at an outdoor show with a few hunded in the audience, sitting on the grass. Jonsi handles the vocals very nicely. At the part towards the end when the music changes from mysterious to joyful he launches into some unexpected high notes that send shivers down the spine. You can tell that he's immersed in the music to the point where there is nothing else.

And get this...NO "SVEN-G-ENGLAR"!!!! It's not that I don't like that song enough...I do...but it's just been used too much, in films (it added a nice touch to "VanillaSky") , tv shows (though I don't watch tv enough to give examples of which shows, but seem to recall hearing it as I channel surfed one day) and the like. It suffers from overexposure. It's a damned good song and one that put them on the map stateside, but the group has gone on to make music that it so much better (IMHO).

Today I shall very likely watch the film, "Heima".

There is absolutely no chance that I will be disappointed in it. (Update, 12.19.07...the film "Heima" is incredible. It would be an ideal introduction to the band for anyone who hasn't heard them.)

Call me a hardcore fan, I guess that's what I am. But if a 45 year old man is going to be a fan of any band, I'd say I do well to love Sigur Ros so much. I've always believed that music IS art. Of course I still beleive that. But Sigur Ros are making art on several more levels than most music. Those words coming, admittedly, from a "hardcore fan". And it is very true that Sigur Ros is a "love 'em or hate 'em" musical experience. I have one friend who says "I just can't get into it." "The kind of music you write and play," says another, "I just don't see how you can like them so much." My wife says she thinks Jonsi sounds like a "dog dying" (though I'm pretty sure she likes the band a little bit). I've always told her that the main obstacle people seem to have in enjoying their music is Jonsi's voice. Some people just can't past all the high notes...

That's okay. It doesn't matter to me. I find his voice to have an ethereal quality that cuts straight through to the heart and soul. I don't understand a single word the man is singing, and yet I feel like I comprehend the songs meanings even so. Maybe not intellectually, but emotionally. Spiritually. And I also have friends who feel the same way as I do about the band. I went on a road trip to Colorado with three of them, to see a Sigur Ros concert (and that's a LONG drive to watch a show and then come back early the next morning). Every person in that theatre was enraptured. At one point between songs the crowd was entranced to the point where there was no applause, just a reverent silence. About a minute into it some guy in the front of the room yelled "Fuckin' INCREDIBLE!!!" At that point the audience broke into a nice mix of raucous applause and laughter.

I don't reccomend "Heima" to everyone. But if you already like Sigur Ros you will definately enjoy "Heima" (what am I saying? If you like Sigur Ros there's about a 95% chance you already HAVE "Heima"). If you don't like Sigur Ros, obviously this won't be your cup of tea. Nothing revelatory here. Nothing that's going to change your mind (which is exactly what most critics said about their last couple of albums...they're probably right about that). If you have not heard the band, or maybe have only heard "Sven-G-Englar" in some foreign context somewhere, get on the internet and find some of their music. It's not hard to do - you can go to Pandora, make a "Sigur Ros Radio Station" and surf your way to a few of their songs there. But open your mind and take a listen. You'll know pretty quick if you're gonna fall in the "love 'em" camp or the "hate 'em" camp. And if you do find yourself in that former lot, you would do well to put all of their albums on the top of your list of things to get...

...and "Heima" as well.