Sigur Ros - Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust

Jun 24 2008 By Paul Cole

(EMI)

SPURRED by the acoustic half of last year’s ambitious Heima set, the Icelandic experimentalists streamline their trademark washes of sound and come up with what sound dangerously like songs.

The three-minute title-track (yes, just 180 seconds!) is almost mainstream pop, Illgresi is semi-plugged folk – and frontman Jonsi Birgisson sings in English on the mantra-like Allt Allt I Lagir.

But wait, Ara Batur is a soaring soundscape boasting the London Sinfonietta and the schoolboy choir from the Harry Potter movies.

Normal service has been restored.