To celebrate Ágætis byrjun’s twentieth birthday the album has been reissued with a veritable treasure-trove of bonus material. In short, the contemporary musical landscape would be rather different if it wasn’t for Ágætis byrjun. To modern ears one can see how this record provides a crucial link between fellow Icelandic acts like Múm and Björk and international artists such as Radiohead and Arcade Fire. Combining traditional rock instrumentation with chamber music, ambient techniques, dream-pop and contemporary classical composition, Sigur Ros create a style of music that is at once immediate and ethereal. While many bands have taken from (or wholesale ripped off) the sonic aesthetic of this album, the unique blend of sounds that the Icelandic group pioneered here has rarely been bettered since. After the modest success of 1997’s Von, Ágætis byrjun brought the band a global audience and ended up in several ‘Album Of The Year’ lists - and a few ‘Album Of The Decade’ ones, too. While Sigur Ros’ second LP Ágætis byrjun (A Good Beginning) was released in 1999, the record has rightly gone on to be regarded as one of the more important indie releases of the 21st Century.
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