Melancholy. That's what I think of when I think of Sigur Ros. A delight of sound.

Sigur Ros, a 4-piece from Iceland, have been together for several years and I am finding that more and more people in this area are discovering them. It's notable to mention that their fans tend to listen to more than just one kind of music (and watch more than "Dances From Tha Hood"). They aren't for everyone with their minimalist approach and orchestral sounds.

I've seen them twice in Seattle and both shows were very, very good. They tour with 4 women called Amina who perform seperately on the show as well as with the boys. When playing with Sigur Ros, they are the string section and they allow the band to reproduce a lot of the sounds on their albums with all of the orchestration.

I have 3 of their albums and while they are all good, my favorite is the middle release, titled (). No, that's not a typo...the album title is simply 2 parenthases (an open and closed one). The titles of the songs are Untitled 1, Untitled 2, etc and, to cap it off, the lyrics are entirely in a fictional, made-up language created by the singer, Jonsi. Some may find that pretentious, but I can't think of many other bands that could release an album like that with even a moderate level of success. Check them out!