ROCK

Released to loosely accompany the Icelandic outfit’s superb recent film, Heima, this two-CD album is a revelation. The Hvarf half contains outtakes and rarities from 12 years of full-band studio sessions and is full of the sumptuous epic soundscapes we’ve come to expect, but the Heim half manages to outshine it. Consisting of stripped-down acoustic versions of their finest moments, it demonstrates that, beneath all that noise, reverb and strange sound effects beats a heart of purest musical gold. Melodic, melancholic and quietly momentous, songs like ‘Staralfur’ and ‘Heysatan’ take on a new, more personalised intensity, and are heart-achingly moving as a result.