Score: 9.9/10
Well, kids, this may be my first post in a long time, but it comes at a time when the frontman for my favorite band of all time releases his solo debut, and however biased this review may be, based on how much of a fan of the band I am, this is an honest review and will be objective enough for the non-fan to gather information from. So let's get this train wreck a-rollin'!
First off, this album seems to me like the culmination of Sigur Rós' progression towards pure pop music. I'm not talking chart pop, I'm talking pop music as in it defies any other genre that is presented to it. If you want to call it chamber pop, I will remind you that most of this instrumentation is sampled. If you want to call it melodramatic adult contemporary, I will tell you that I will have my children listen to this, because this album makes me want to go back to the bliss of being a naive young child who can feel as good as this music emulates. If you want to call it post-rock... reminder, kids, it's not Sigur Rós anymore. They put out the best post-rock album of all time and the best album period of, last decade, almost exactly ten years ago.
Jónsi, while not abandoning the ethereal sounds that set Sigur Rós apart from other post-rock groups, has created a much more exciting sound than any artist may have created ever. It's not excitement that makes you want to dance, it's not excitement that is to be propagated as this music blares at a party; LCD Soundsystem's upcoming release will more than satisfy that next month. Go makes you excited to live. Go makes you want to go do something, it makes you want to acquire something you want and it is a fitting soundtrack for celebration. It's funny that I mention it makes you want to go do something, because the standout track, not by far, but by enough that it will most definitely rank at the top (bias cast aside) if not only in the top 5 of my favorite tracks of the year 2010, is entitled "Go Do." "Go Do," the opening track, creates many different kinds of moods at once; it is inspiring, it encourages originality, it brightens up your day, and all in a language that you and I understand... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that most of this album's lyrics are in English. They may be cheesy, but they convey a kind of honesty in their token-inspirational-pop-song text that can't be conveyed by either someone who speaks English as their first language or who gets hourly airplay on pop radio. Take the track I just mentioned. You would think that a line saying "You should always know that we can do anything." At other times, this line would be dismissed as some American Idol contestant trying to connect with people, whereas here it is accompanied by some of the most beautiful and fitting pop music ever composed. It never gets cheesy on this album, and for those who are used to the incoherent warblings of Jónsi, not to fear, there is still some sporadic Icelandic and even Hopelandic that graces this masterpiece.
So there's the first track, now we go onto the next ones. "Animal Arithmetic" is easily the most excited of the tracks, filled with more sampling than even the Avalanches could probably cram into one song. The next cut, "Tornado," is the first taste of what classic Sigur Rós fans will enjoy, as it is slow, yet big, like what we all grew to love on Ágaetis Byrjun. Then the pop kicks back on with "Boy Lilikoi," which is another one of my favorites on this record. The lyrics, story, desire to be a lilikoi boy, etc. may make absolutely no sense, but in the vein of "Go Do," it creates a sense of desire and determination and almost guarantee of success in whatever strange endeavor this song is portraying (a lilikoi is actually a type of fruit). The next track, "Sinking Friendships," for a while I thought was skipping. Then I realized that it's the same kind of stutter-production used by such great artists such as Cornelius and Lady Gaga (kidding about Lady Gaga, but the same technique can be found there). It then blooms into another upbeat track that completely contradicts its depressing-sounding title. Then we move to the album's first Icelandic track, "Kolnidur," which blends the angst associated with previous Sigur Rós outputs with the frantic sampled chirps of this new release. "Around Us" is the last upbeat track on the album, with "Grow Till Tall" being the first and only to feature prominent Hopelandic, and the closer, "Hengilás." If you know your Sigur Rós, you know that their closing tracks (with the exception of the parentheses album) are not always up to snuff, and this is what gets Go its 9.9 instead of an even 10; it's of course not a perfect closer, but it's definitely a step up from all of Sigur Rós' previous closers (although like I said, it's no Popplagid).
Go, unless someone else completely amazes me (LCD perhaps?), is the album of the year in my book. Like I said, I'm biased, but you listen to this album and try not to put a big smile on your face and/or keep your finger away from that replay button. It won't happen.
