This Week's Album: Sigur Ros - "Hvarf/Heim"

An odds-and-ends, double-disc collection of unreleased songs, re-recorded, mostly acoustic numbers and a B-side, “Hvarf/Heim,” again proves the Sigur Ros' two great theses: Melody matters more than lyrics and new age can rock as hard as rock can rock. Singing in their native tongue, the Icelanders rely on melody, not words, to carry their soundscapes, which borrow as much from George Winston and Enya (without sucking at all) as from Radiohead, U2 and the Cure’s “Disintegration." The platitudes you have probably heard about them as still dead-on. Haunting, yes. Bombastic, sure. Sublime, for sure. Complex, very.