Album Review: Jónsi - Go

“Life is better with the ash cloud”, mused one of my friends upon looking up at a smooth, uninterrupted blue London sky; a no go area for planes due to the gravelly discharge of an unpronounceable Icelandic volcano. This serene, enchanting sight of an empty, calm and pristinely natural sky is the perfect visual accompaniment to Go; the debut album from Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi, appropriately also from Iceland.

Throughout the album Jónsi maintains a strange naturalness to his music; every sound seems perfectly placed and justified and every lyric inspired by a higher force. Album opener ‘Go Do’is a majestic, soaring ballad; littered with tweets, buzzes and bangs it is as sobering as it is uplifting. ‘Animal Arithmetic’continues in the same vein, a frenzied cacophony of sound it could stand as the soundtrack to a volcanic eruption if it weren’t so breezy and beautiful.

If ‘Animal Arithmetic’is a frenzied volcanic eruption ‘Tornado’represents the calm before the storm; “You grow, you grow like a tornado”, Jónsi howls as the song does just that, building into a storming crescendo before instantly dying, as Jónsi asks, “I wonder if I’m allowed just ever to be”? ‘Boy Lilikoi’ is an anthem of renewal, an ode to life. “Use your eyes, the world goes and flutters by use your eyes, you’ll know you are” Jónsi exclaims, lyrics as poignant as they are pointless, before the song explodes into an orchestral masterpiece of vocal and instrumental beauty. My personal favourite track on the album, ‘Boy Lilikoi’ could melt the heart of even the moodiest Icelandic banker.

‘Sinking Friendships’ and ‘Kolniður’ take the album down a gear - two of the more Sigur Rós sounding tracks on the album, they are both tributes to Jónsi’s extraordinary vocal talent. ‘Around Us’ and ‘Grow Till Tall’ see Jónsi return to the lyrical theme of growth, in both a human and natural sense: “We all want to grow with the seeds we will sow”, he sings. These references to natural growth sit perfectly with Jónsi’s musical style as songs start life as a bare theme - a musical seed - and blossom into a huge and varied aural tree.

Album closer ‘Hengilás’ acts as the funeral march to the record, dark and sombre it leaves the listener hanging, desperate for the joyous sounds of ‘Go Do’ and ‘Boy Lilikoi’ once again.

The recent saga involving the Icelandic ash cloud reminded us all of the over-arching, mysterious and unpredictable power of nature. For six days Britain’s skies were empty and a strange calmness was cast over the country as thousands of people had no choice but just to remain where they were; a strange, unique and natural phenomenon. When described using these three terms the similarities between the Icelandic ash cloud and this Icelandic musician’s debut record seem rife. Life may not have been better with the ash cloud, but it certainly is with Jónsi.