Sigur Ros

In recent years, there’s been a real expansion in our awareness of great rock ’n’ roll coming from non-English speaking countries—and we’re not just talking about all the cool ABBA tribute bands. Maybe it’s just the natural consequence of having successfully overwhelmed the rest of the world with our brand of pop music. Are we really that surprised that Swedish teenagers can now pick up the guitar and play garage rock even better than we can? On the other hand, there are examples of bands that are making great music on their own terms and in their own languages. In the case of Iceland’s Sigur Ros, that’s literally true. Jonsi Birgisson, their ultra-androgynous singer, makes up his own language (not like we’d know the difference between Jonsic and Icelandic, but it makes us seem smart to say so.) Atmospheric dirges, soaring and symphonic studies in feedback, like Cocteau Twins run over by the Mannheim Steamroller—it’s all far too artsy-fartsy for mainstream American consumption. And yet, somehow these Bjorkish boys colonized a place in the hearts of every English-speaking critic west of Robert Christgau, not to mention a spot on the superhip soundtrack to FOX-TV’s thriller, 24 .