“Olsen Olsen” - Sigur Rós
(Words/music: Sigur Rós, available on Ágætis Byrjun, Fat Cat 1999 / PIAS America 2000)

Recently, I’ve been thinking about moments I associate with songs.  In many cases, finding a new favorite isn’t about finding the right ingredients but rather the right circumstances.  This is how albums seemingly “reinvent” themselves over time; an album that evoked one set of emotions at one time period might return another time with an entirely new set of associated feelings.  Along with this, often, comes a new set of favorite songs.  It’s not that the songs change (obviously), but rather the listener.  A lot of times, I’ll rediscover a record that went hidden behind mounds of new music only to find something entirely new that I never noticed earlier.  I used to get frustrated when I’d buy an album, listen a couple times, and then abandon it; now, I see these occasions as “buying myself a present for the future,” almost like I bought the record and subconsciously stashed it away for when the time would be right.

I bought Ágætis Byrjun in 2001 and liked it immediately.  It sounded like something that beautiful, angel-throated aliens might sing.  I have vivid memories of my first winter break home from college, running errands for my mom in her mini-van listening to Ágætis Byrjun and Jeff Buckley’s Grace for almost the entire break.  Then, the record drifted to the depths of my giant CD binder, traveling with me back and forth between school and home, occasionally getting played but only sporadically.  Then, last summer while visiting my old college roommate in Chicago, we watched Sigur Rós’s Heima documentary.  While marveling at the beautiful Icelandic countryside, I absorbed all the different performances of their songs.  “Olsen Olsen” was the one that stopped me in my tracks, though.  I was compiling my things in his apartment when that scene started, and the opening crawl immediately struck me.  I started packing slower and slower, watching a crowd gather on the countryside as that beautiful woodwind melody floated in for the first time.  Then, as the film panned across a now complete crowd, “Olsen Olsen” shifted into high gear and I froze in my tracks.  I let the mix of bowed strings – some from a traditional string section, the others from the electric guitars played with a bow, wash over me.  It was the perfect wave of distortion and melody soundtracking a breathtaking scene of rural Iceland at dusk.  It was the precise moment that led me back to Ágætis Byrjun, a record that I often put on late at night when I need to unwind and shift towards bedtime.  I previously had favorites from that album – specifically “Starálfur” - but since that time, “Olsen Olsen” became my favorite (and, over the past 12 months is my most played song on Last.fm, in part from those late night Ágætis Byrjun listening sessions).  All because of a lazy August afternoon in an apartment a few blocks away from Lake Michigan.

More on Sigur Rós: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm