Yesterday BBC Radio 1's Colin Murray show unveiled a second single from Sigur Rós's mucho anticipated með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. We all had fun passing the Sung Tongs references around while being blown away by the sound shift (plus ample NSFWisms) brought by "Gobbledigook," and the accompanying album statement had a few of us thinking every song was gonna be a comparable mindfuck. Well calm down, a few of us. "Festival" does not recall Animal Collective, nor any other band but the ones in this post title.
The song's just over nine minutes and split evenly into two movements: the first is straight ( ) style, slowly unfolding, organ-laced celestial coos from Jonsi; the second comes at 4:35 with a very Takk-y "Hoppípolla"-->"Með blóðnasir" transition (see: downstroking bass, surrounding band swells), ending in what sounds like, yes, a festival. In other words: it's a Sigur Rós song. In other other words: It's good. I hear a few Hopelandic-y "yu-so"s in there, so my barely educated guess is that this is not the song that is meant to be in English. But prove me wrong at Hype Machine.
Also worth mentioning: The band will be touring all through Europe this summer (including a vacation-worthy show in Icleand with Björk), but not before hitting the US for shows in Omaha, Kansas City, Bonnaroo, and in NYC's Grand Ballroom (6/16) and Museum of Modern Art (6/17). Dates and ticket info here.
