"( )" holds a Metacritic score of 82/100 based on twenty reviews, making it one of the thirty highest-scored albums of 2002 according to Metacritic. Daniel Becker of "Dusted Magazine" wrote that the album is "gorgeous music..the songs are vast, unhurried, and vivid, and that only makes them more powerful." He considers "( )" a "logical extension of "Ágætis Byrjun", relying on the same interplay of instruments to create a similarly picturesque and eerily calm atmosphere." Chris Ott of "Pitchfork" wrote that "Sigur Rós' music has all the depth, resonance and humanity of a Brueghel landscape, and is best appreciated at loud volumes in open spaces, as a soundtrack for scenery, real or imagined." Sean Adams of Drowned in Sound said that ""( )" is as pioneering, unnerving, inspiring, confusing, as lyrically anarchic as every thing that has moved the world, ever" and "why I love music, why this website has this name and why art exists. "( )" yours to discover." Gavin Mueller of "Stylus Magazine" found that Jónsi's voice "never [has sounded more exposed, giving band a strength that "Ágætis Byrjun" often obscured. The final track’s ultimate climax is nothing short of harrowing, as a crashing storm of frantic drum fills overwhelms Birgisson’s urgent guitar strumming and plaintive wail."