Send "Sigur Ros " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 Ever since they captivated the world with Ágætis byrjun in 2000, it seems that Iceland natives Sigur Rós have never given up on being beautiful. Over the course of five studio recordings, the bands signature ambient post-rock has never faltered in its breathtaking beauty. In a way, it speaks much to the country the band hails from. What is likely the implicit point of the 2007 tour documentary Heima, with its panoramic, mesmerizing vistas of Iceland, is that the beauty of Sigur Rós music is inseparable from its origins. The sound of the Icelandic hills was, and still is, alive with the sound of Sigur Rós. The lush green hills depicted in Heima and the entire output of the band over the past decade are equally beautiful, though for reasons not always the same. The aesthetic quality of their music is highly organic, though the bands instrumental lineup is mostly electronic.To see Sigur Rós live, then, must be quite an experience. The band have never ceased to amaze in the richness of their material in all of their studio recordings of the past decade, but live, these songs no doubt turn into something else entirely. The stripped-down, mostly acoustic version of Ágætis byrjun released on both Heima and Hvarf/Heim, took the studios versions ambient bent and gave it a pastoral, folk feel. Just as the band could tone a track down, however, it seems logical that they could take an already brilliant studio track and expand it into something greater live, something that magnifies the brilliant intensity of their sound. Some of the best moments on past Sigur Rós outings are those moments where a song bursts into a joyous cacophony; Milano, from Takk, is a prime example. Certainly, these moments of climax must be quite brilliant when seen live. This is where the core problem with Inni manifests itself. Some words of praise first: Inni (meaning inside), filmed live in London, is still a testament to just how beautiful Sigur Rós music is. There are moments throughout the performance that take already good live tracks and make them even more beautiful than they initially were. The originally sparse All Alright, the track from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust sung in English, becomes something truly magical in its live incarnation: though still sparse (lead singer Jónsi Birgissons voice and a piano are the sole instruments), the song is an even more fragile beauty live. The song lacks the grandeur of many of the songs on the rest of the setlist, but its a piece so powerful that it sounds out easily among the remainder of the tracks....full text |
| Slantmagazine |
| For those who never thought they'd see the words "double live album" mentioned in the same sentence as Sigur Rós, behold the arrival of Inni, a song-for-song relay (sans one omission) of the Reykjavík quartet's 2008 performance at London's Alexandra Palace. As uncharacteristic as this release seems for a band that's long defied typical rock tropes (like, for instance, overstuffed "live in concert" collections) the impression listeners will ultimately take away from Inni is glacial, pristine, atmospheric, crystalline, and any other Iceland-esque descriptor relevant to the band's body of work. In other words, Inni is Sigur Rós through and through, and any assumption that the album is incongruous with the band's milieu is immediately disproven by the slow, haunting strains of "Ný Batterí" that open the first disc. Sigur Rós proves to be just as masterful in concert as they are in the studio, and that goes twofold for leadman Jonsi: The demure singer's glassy, adrongynous voice is captured beautifully amid Alexandra Palace's cavernous acoustics on tracks like "Sæglópur" and "Glósóli." Inni's problem is that it provides very little in the way of a raison d'être, arriving at a rather mystifying time during the band's indefinite hiatus and at the cusp of Jonsi's burgeoning solo career. As lovely as the album often is, it never quite gets around to justifying its existence, nor relieving the lingering doubts about Sigur Rós's dubious future. What purpose does reminding listeners of the band's rock grandeur serve? Is this a tease at something greater to come, or merely a strangely timed memento? It seems almost phillistine to suggest that a group as artistically pure as Sigur Rós would attempt to cash in on their legacy, but that, at least, is a coherent reason for unveiling an album that plays like a predictable greatest-hits rundown from a three-year-old concert recording....full text |
| Bbc |
| Releasing a Greatest Hits album doesnt seem very Sigur Rós, so this live album will have to do. Since the Icelanders havent released a new album since 2008 (and the follow-up to Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust was scrapped before it was finished), Inni is also a welcome stopgap, if not the album fans wanted. Inni (Inside) contains tracks from each of their albums, and comes with 75 minutes of concert footage (no frills; no audience even) from Londons Alexandra Palace in November 2008. The double-CD from the same two shows encompasses 105 minutes, enough for about five of their songs. Only kidding. There are 15 tracks in total, but Sigur Rós songs are the aural equivalent of the slow food club, each taste to be savoured and endured so that every classical, folk, ambient, rock and post-rock flavour can be absorbed. If rocknroll is the new food, Jónsi and company could win Masterchef every time. But theres something about live albums that falls short of the main event. Sigur Rós are an extraordinary live band; its those flavours, with backlighting and blended visuals, and Jónsis presence, the way he draws that violin bow across his guitar and gets lost in sound, and the way all four of them are bathed in the intensity of their performance. This is all lacking when you hear Inni in the cold light of day/dusk/night. The way the frontman stretches for those high fragile notes in Glósóli would be much better with the visual aid (its not on the film). And pictured or not, this version of Hoppípolla after all its exposure on TV and film isnt expansive enough....full text |
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