Pitchfork

There are no actual gongs on "Gong", which leads me to conclude "gong" in Hopelandic must mean something entirely different-- "let down," perhaps? OK, that's a bit harsh, and a return to the old knock: Should Radiohead ever be cut in half Solomon-style, Coldplay would get the pop side while Sigur Rós would inherit the atmospherics. But "Gong", at a reasonably brief 5:30, is the closest thing the Icelanders have ever gotten to a radio single, and if its words were in a British accent about ennui rather than in Jonsi's falsetto yodel and about who knows what, you could almost picture the song facilitating a crossover from indie-movie soundtrack requirement to alt-rock radio stations.

Outlined by their trademark breezy strings at the open and close, the bulk of the song is driven by a busier rhythm and brisker tempo than the band usually employs, as if they're trying their best to eliminate the word "glacial" from reviewers' vocabularies. And with the song's circular guitar and electric-piano melodies reaching their climax in about half the time of your usual Sigur Rós epic, "Gong" may be the song for those of you (us) who tend to fall asleep three minutes into Agaetis Byrjun like it's laced with Ambien.

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