Probably the most minimalistic title out there. Albums that have no title generally are called after the band, or get a name in popular culture. Metallica’s black album was named that way because there seem to be no title on the cover. It was just all black, with the name of the band. What is the name of this third studio album of Sigur Rós?
The band called it Svigaplatan, which translates from Icelandic to ‘The bracket album‘. The opposing brackets refer to the two distinctive parts of the album, one light, one dark, and each composed of four untitled tracks. Light and ark are parted by 36 seconds of silence. These should maybe have been falling in between the sides of a record, but since the record came out on four sides, it is now in the middle of side two.
The songs are sung in Vonlenska, a made up language that is kind of Icelandic, but with a lot of gibberish that fits the music. All of the lyrics for this album make up an eleven syllable phrase, in different permutations per song. That is why there are no lyrics or titles, although the band has names for them. Later these names were published, and fans now know most of the songs by these names.
The CD has a small booklet with empty pages. You’re supposed to draw your own impressions of the music there. That would have been nice to have in a bigger version for the LP version of the album, but it is not there.