| Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by Sigur Rós | ||||
| Released | June 20, 2008 June 23, 2008 June 24, 2008 July 2, 2008 |
|||
| Recorded | January–April 2008 at Sundlaugin, Abbey Road Studios and Langholtskirkja [1] | |||
| Genre | Post-rock Ambient Art rock |
|||
| Length | 55:36 | |||
| Label | EMI, XL Recordings | |||
| Producer | Sigur Rós and Flood | |||
| Sigur Rós chronology | ||||
|
||||
Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust (Icelandic: [mɛð ˈsʏːð i ˈeiːrʏm vɪð ˈspɪːlʏm ˈɛntaløyst], With a Buzz in Our Ears We Play Endlessly[2]) is the fifth full-length studio album by the Icelandic band Sigur Rós, released on June 23, 2008.[3]
All the lyrics for the album were originally intended to be in English, but in the end the band decided that Icelandic felt more natural to them. Some lyrics were translated back into Icelandic, while some songs got completely new texts.[4] It is the band's first album to feature a track sung in English ("All Alright"). The first track on the album, "Gobbledigook", premiered on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 music show in the UK on May 27, 2008. "Festival" was premiered on Colin Murray's Radio 1 show on June 3, 2008.
In general, the music continues Sigur Rós' departure from their generally ethereal and minimalist music, being (as the title and cover suggest) more playful and fanciful than their early work, featuring more traditional guitar melodies, acoustic instrumentation, and folk-oriented compositions following in the vein of their later albums.
The album was available for pre-order from June 3 on the band's official media site, and on June 5, the band performed "Gobbledigook", "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur ", "Festival", "Fljótavík", "Við spilum endalaust" and "All Alright" live in Guadalajara, Mexico. On June 8, the full album streamed early on the Sigur Rós dót widget.[5][6] On June 19, pre-ordered albums began arriving in the mail. The song "Festival" was featured in the 2010 Danny Boyle film 127 Hours starring James Franco.[7]
The album's cover features a photograph by Ryan McGinley.[8] Originally the album artwork was going to be done by Olafur Eliasson; it would have been the first time the band had passed album artwork to an external artist.[9] In the end they did not like the proposed design and created the cover art themselves using the photograph.[10]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [11] |
| The Boston Globe | (favorable) [12] |
| God Is in the TV Zine | [13] |
| Hot Press | [14] |
| The Independent | [15] |
| NME | [16] |
| Now | [17] |
| The Phoenix | [18] |
| Pitchfork Media | (7.5/10) [19] |
| Rolling Stone | [20] |
Contents |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Gobbledigook" | 3:08 |
| 2. | "Inní mér syngur vitleysingur" ("Within me a lunatic sings") | 4:05 |
| 3. | "Góðan daginn" ("Good morning") | 5:15 |
| 4. | "Við spilum endalaust" ("We play endlessly") | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Festival" | 9:24 |
| 6. | "Með suð í eyrum" ("With a buzz in our ears") | 4:56 |
| 7. | "Ára bátur" ("Old boat") | 8:57 |
| 8. | "Illgresi" ("Weeds") | 4:13 |
| 9. | "Fljótavík" ([the name of a wide bay in Hornstrandir, Iceland]) | 3:49 |
| 10. | "Straumnes" ([the name of a tidal headland near Fljótavík]) | 2:01 |
| 11. | "All Alright" | 6:21 |
| Japanese and iTunes bonus track | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 12. | "Heima" ("At home") | 3:59 | |||||||
Strings: Amiina (on tracks 2,3,4,5,8 and 9, recorded in Kjartan Sveinsson's livingroom and Langholtskirkja)
Brass (on tracks 2, 4 and 11) performed by:
Tambourine, claps and other noises by Siggi Frendi, Höddi Gunni, John Best, Sunray and Breeze.
"Ára bátur" recorded live at Abbey Road Studios with the London Sinfonietta and the choristers of the London Oratory School Schola. Directed by D. Bjarnason, engineered by Andy Dudman.
Photography by Ryan McGinley.
| Chart (2008) [21] | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart | 14 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders) | 4 |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 21 |
| Finnish Albums Chart | 7 |
| German Albums Chart | 26 |
| Iceland Albums Chart | 1 |
| Irish Albums Chart | 4 |
| Japanese Albums Chart | 22 |
| Italian Albums Chart | 13 |
| Norwegian Albums Chart | 7 |
| Swedish Albums Chart | 29 |
| Swiss Albums Chart | 8 |
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 15 |
| UK Albums Chart | 5 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||