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Sigur Rós is an Icelandic post-rock group (not experimental) whose largest and most explicit goal is to create beautiful soundscapes. Just like anything that tries too hard to be beautiful, the end result is sometimes superficial or tediously unoriginal. In Sigur Rós' case, they are normally sincere in their songwriting. ( ) is not one of their more notable releases, though deserves its praise as well. With the intriguing cover - simply a negative ( ) - and the even more intriguing booklet - 10 pages of semi-transparent art without a single word - ( ) really manages to catch the interest. Unfortunately, as soon as you hit play, half of the creativity and intrigue vanishes, and delivers another light, bright, somewhat daunting piece of post-rock - with some tiny, and yet strangely unsatisfying touches of minimal music.

Some of the melodies that dominate the album are quite touching, sometimes as far as moving, but are all somewhat similar in execution and identical in atmosphere. In contrast to other Sigur Rós releases, and most post-rock in general, ( ) has some moments of darker tunes. But for the most part, this is optimistic mush, mixed with steady and simple beats. Fortunately, the entire album is not static, and the music develops into the climax of Untitled # 8 (A.K.A. Popplagio), though songs 2 through 5 are unsubstantial, un-energetic, un-provoking blah. I wouldn't suggest this, personally, as a good starting point for either this sub genre or for the band, but if the description I have given you of the music sounds like your thing, then go for it.