First off, an assessment of the outside of this cd will be enough to twist your mind. The album title itself, ( ), is a start. On this second album, the band has decided to take a minimalist approach to not only the music, but the packaging as well. A simple white slip cover with the group's name is thrown over the cd, which features absolutely no other words other than the band's website, sigur-ros.com. There are edited shots of trees, grass, and other natural environments, but nothing else. Follow the CD into your player and you've got essentially the same thing- natural landscapes of sound. Unlike on their worldwide debut, Ágaetis Byrjun, Sigur Rós seemingly are creating a concept album based on basic sound fundamentals and human emotion. The interplay between the listener's ears and the sounds they create are what make this such a sonic masterpiece.

While the band has made no official tracklisting, there's been an unofficial one listed on numerous fan sites: 1. Vaka 2. Fyrsta 3. Samskeyti 4. Njósnavélin 5. Alafoss 6. E-Bow 7. Death Song 8. Pop Song . From the start of this album, there are various themes carried throughout the pieces although the album is broken in half by a 36 second silence. The first half of the album is filled with lighter songs that breathe an air of etherealism consistent with previous Sigur Rós compositions. The latter half combusts with a darker shade, eventually ending with the heavy drumming in Track 8. The guitar work on Track 4 seems reminiscent of The Edge's work, toned down about 5 steps. Unlike on Ágaetis Byrjun however, the two album halves are separate, but seamless entities, evocative of the separation of the album's parenthetical or semicircular album title. And while minimalism and avantgardism reign supreme in the kingdom of this Icelandic quartet, it is that which drives this album's greatness.

Fundamentally, there is nothing too complex within this album; simple chords repeat in patterns just as in any other song. It is the way in which the music is played and sung that adds to the album. Typical of Jon Thor Birgisson, singer/guitarist for the band, guitar parts are played with cello bows and reverb is abundant. Keyboards and synths add sparkles and shimmers, the bass pounds out chasms, and the drums keep us from not falling asleep, but all with the illusion that we are on some other plane of existence- through the light and dark parts. Birgisson sings somewhat in "Hopelandic," a cross between an extinct Scandanavian language and gibberish. Birgisson is probably one of the few people in the world who can pull off this falsetto not only convincingly, but within the same textural spectrum of the accompanying music. The reason it works so well is because the lyrics are essentially left open to interpretation by the listeners, whether French, German, or English.