Sigur Ros's fifth studio full-length, MED SUD I EYRUM VID SPILUM ENDALAUST, begins with such a tour de force of orchestral pop in the first half, listeners will recall Brian Wilson's self-describing "teenage symphonies to God." Pilfering from both the Arcade Fire--see the rousing second track "Inni Mer Syngur Vitleysingur"--and Animal Collective--see the lead-off single "Gobbledigook"--in equal measure, the Icelandic quartet create a masterwork that weds their soaring bombast to near-conventional pop structures and adds an experimental joy to their normally somber obsessiveness. The latter half of MED SUD is more in line with their previous effort, TAKK..., with more lived-in textures and slower paces, but after the poppy first half, the change is welcome. The album was recorded in a house in Reykjavik by Flood, who finds the same hooks and sweeping passion here that he did over two decades before engineering U2's THE JOSHUA TREE.

• Genre: Rock
• Format: Vinyl
• Released: 01/20/2009