Ethereal and enigmatic, Jónsi release ‘Go’ soars

Jónsi

Go

XL Recordings

Rocks Like: Sigur Rós… Jónsi

Go

XL Recordings

Rocks Like: Sigur Rós gone a bit less Icelandic.

Grade: A

After five albums with Sigur Rós, singer Jon Thor Birgisson goes solo with Go.

Any adjective less than beautiful cannot do this record justice.

Jónsi mixes foreign languages with English, his lyrics simultaneously easy and enigmatic. “Boy Lilikoi” in particular shows how this record can be pleasant on the simplest levels. Love the way “Lilikoi” rolls off the tongue. Appreciate the collective sound with a gradual build from quiet to cathartically loud in sweet tones.

Sometimes the songs are bare, one-note sounds. Other times voices float above some processed grunge, all skipping and static, but still beautiful. “Grow Till Tall” does it all and remains almost dysfunctionally, forcefully pretty.

“Around Us” sums up the general feeling of the album, with Jónsi hitting those high octaves over a marching beat. He goes on about wings and other lovely, incomprehensible things.

Sounds evoke images like poetry: feathers in the wind, a box of cutlery falling down stairs or new leaves sprouting from the ground.

Go is everything you would expect from Sigur Rós’ front man, as well as something more mysterious — poetry in nature, but in a slightly foreign, futuristic way.