Go

Go is a phenomenal record with almost every bar bursting with beauty. It is soulful, fun, naive and sad in its own fantastical world; if only life really were this good.

Go is a genuinely beautiful, emotionally resonant must-hear. [Apr 2010, p.126]

As his main band disappears into "indefinite hiatus", console yourself with the knowledge that Birgisson has just made the best record of his career.

What's really satisfying about Go is the way the soaring architecture of symphonic hipster du jour Nico Muhly's compositional work looms just as large on the more effervescent numbers as it does in these quieter spots - it really drawing everything together into a wonderfully coherent whole, despite the record's ever-shifting tides and Birgisson's violently affecting knack for distilling every emotion known to humanity into a single echoing chord change.

Even if the era of Sigur Ros is indeed over, Jonsi's solo career contains all the exhilarating promise that a new beginning should.

Icelandic post-rock band Sigur Ros may be on an indefinite hiatus, but the group's enigmatic singer Jon Thor Birgisson, better-known as Jonsi, is filling the void with his first solo album, "Go."

After a decade spent vacillating between snoozy and sublime, Icelandic dream-rockers Sigur Ros went unexpectedly playful on their most recent studio album, a welcome development that frontman Jonsi Birgisson extends with this bright disc. [9 Apr 2010, p.70]

Much of Go matches the uplift of Sigur Ros at their most dramatic. There's more sonic density here than ever-- Go's cacophony of flutes, piano, horns, strings, and bird calls beg for a 5.1 mix.

On his solo debut, Jonsi Birgisson--Sigur Ros' spectral voice and six-string skyscraper--embraces a lithe, lush pop his main band is too monolithic to accommodate, and it's revelatory.

A remarkable accomplishment on nearly every level, Jonsi has made an album that doesn't just illuminate, but also elevates.

It's easy to forgive the album's occasional misfires because it doesn't tiptoe about, eyes glued to the floor, apologizing for its gargantuan ambition. It does cartwheels when it bloody well feels like it, cries when it wants to, and raises the bar for songwriters like Sufjan Stevens who share similarly heady classical predilections.

Go is a joyous and unique work that bristles with the hum of life.

If Sigur Ros never releases another album, as long as Jonsi makes records this thrilling, it'll be OK.

No matter the speed at which it moves, Go glows brightly with a formidable sense of ambition and hope.

As long as nobody mentions Aled Jones, this is exhilarating. [May 2010, p.94]

No surprise, this first solo record from arch-seraph Jon Thor Birgisson brims with moments of aural salvation.

What Go lacks in depth- yes it really is this cheery, eat your gummi bears- it makes up for in being honest. Go is the most candid, open look into Jonsi Birgisson we've ever received.

At nine songs in length, Go is short enough that its purposefully naive milieu never becomes rote or oppressive.

When the loops and beats are kicking up dust, the man's blissful blues feel earned.

It's a solid album throughout, with satisfying builds and a cacophony of beautifully symphonic music.

There's a connection with the contemporary world, with the apparatus and detritus that layers 2010 up around us all, that hasn't really been seen in Sigur Ros's music before.

Sigur Ros frontman goes it alone to exhilarating effect.

Go, then, is strangely underdeveloped for how overdeveloped it feels; by no means a trifle, it's as hard to outright hate on as it is to be trampled by, just another lovely 40 minutes from a guy with easily another 40 up his frilly sleeve.