Have you listened to any of these releases?

Just now listened to ÁTTA.

What are your thoughts?

It lacks their earlier fire and creativity. It's still good, but it's not amazing. They're basically taking the Sufjan route now: making decent music but nothing to write home about. They've got an amazing catalog already and are now just coasting on inertia, just paying the bills. I mean, people get old. It happens.

What have you enjoyed from these artists in the past?

I've listened to Sigur Rós' studio discography from beginning to end, and I own several of their albums in physical format. Ágætis byrjun is definitely my favorite among their albums, but that's probably not a surprising pick. Most fans would probably go with this one or Takk.... Ágætis byrjun is a beacon and a buoy, and you, in the dark yet glimmering waters, are invited to swim around it, explore it, enjoy it, and immerse yourself in its ocean. This album is the elf who stares back at you through your own eyes when you look in the mirror late at night, when you need sleep but cannot find it. This album is an airstrike on the finest day you've ever seen.

Moving on to Takk..., Every time I listen to this album, I love it more. This is a unique band for me, since I often sing along with them, having no idea what I'm singing. It's all phonetic anyway, but the fact that they can anchor the vocals in my mind without providing any meaning allows me to consider the vocals to be just another instrument in their triumphant, uplifting soundscape. This beautiful album can evoke emotions from me like few other pieces of music can. I went over to my friend's apartment one day, and he sat me down in front of his huge speakers, turned off the lights, and played for me a song. I didn't know who it was by. He just wanted me to listen to it. So I did. Full disclosure: he had kick-ass speakers, so anything would've sounded impressive. Listening to this song was like entering a faerie land, and not the cartoonish Disney kind. I mean the proper faerie realm, one supremely pagan and one that is equal parts beautiful and dangerous. That song was "Sæglópur", and it was the beginning of my love affair with Sigur Rós' music.

Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust is a delightful, beautiful blend of dream pop and post-rock, never failing to transport me to that aforementioned Faerie. To steal someone else's analogy of this band, this album is more selkie than troll. She swims through this music. This is a pleasant day at the festival where you browse the stalls and eat lunch upon the warm grass. The music unfolds all around you, revealing whatever vistas your imagination can conjure. Music so fragile it will break if you but brush against it, music so robust it will sweep you away in a tempest.

I listened to Kveikur when it was first released (2013), and having lost one of its members, the band sounds a bit different on this album. My initial reaction was one of guarded skepticism. I wasn't sure if I liked it, but when I listened to it again, it just happened to be when I was pulling an all-nighter (and no I wasn't studying). I danced to this album harder than I've ever danced in my life outside a live show setting, and the dancing helped me understand and love this album. As a matter of fact, my experience with this album was so profound that I didn't listen to a single piece of music for the next 30 days. I couldn't. The music receptors in my soul were burned out.

More ambient than their other releases, Valtari is more about setting a mood than taking a musical journey through Sigur Rós' soundscape. Though I don't spin this as much as Ágætis byrjun, Takk..., Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, or Kveikur, I still love this album and the way it helps me relax. This music is a long, slow, sad look at what the band is capable of. It's like a camera panning over an old battlefield, now overgrown with grass and flowers.

All the calm, soothing parts of Sigur Rós' shtick is on ( ), an ethereal, untitled album. Very entr'acte. The arras never rises. There are actually a couple moments where the organ-driven music sounds like something Pink Floyd would have made. But the moments quickly evaporate. For the most part, this album is mood crafting.