Sigur Ros

After finding lots of suggestive space in a sound that skewed as uniformly slow and ethereal, Icelandic band Sigur Rós grew a little more antic and wiggly on its 2008 album, Med Sud Í Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust. (It translates into English as With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly.) The first single, “Gobbledigook,” sounds a lot like Animal Collective, with mantric, tribal drum-pounding and coos carrying it up into the ether. But nothing Sigur Rós touches could avoid sounding magisterial and a little bit haunted, so don’t mourn the loss of tunes of old: The band’s new album, Valtari, delivers a nearly percussion-free batch of ambient soundscapes that ranks among the group’s most elegant records.

Updated 07/19/2012