A Good Beginning

I’d never claim to know Sigur Rós better than the next guy. (Especially if the next guy was my buddy Meng, a dude who, ever since I’ve known him, has worshiped at Jónsi Birgisson’s altar). But don’t think that just ’cause I don’t seem to know my Vonlenska from my Icelandic that I won’t challenge your ass to an air bow duel if you dared suggest that Sigur Rós has made better records than Ágætis byrjun.

I confess, till last week, when Sigur Rós announced their upcoming Singapore stopover (23 November, Fort Canning Park in case you’ve been living under a rock), I’d not spun Ágætis in quite some time. But even so, I knew I was right. And that even if all the evidence in the world were laid before me, I’d never agree that Takk… or the new Valtari or even ( ) were superior to Sigur Rós’ second. Because when it comes to the divine, ethereal, genre-defying (I don’t care what you think you know, they’re not post rock!) music of Sigur Rós’ music, evidence, facts and logic mean dick. What counts, is what is felt and how it’s felt…

The scenes you remember. The scents. The sounds.

Me, I think of Sigur Rós and I think of Ágætis byrjun. I think Ágætis and I remember how in June 1999, when the album came out, I owned neither a car nor a computer. And I remember too how something like Svefn-g-englar sounded in the dead of night. Because while I may not have owned a car, computer, or house, I did own a Discman and Ágætis byrjun, purchased through a friend for S$35 from HMV, Singapore was among the discs I played the most.

In the past 13 years, I’ve listened to everything Sigur Rós have done. And while I will admit that ( ) is a phenomenal record, in terms of emotion, it has nothing on Ágætis. And I know it never will because those memories above aside, as I looked back at my IM logs mere days ago, I found too that I was listening to Ágætis in August 2009 days before my father died. Now, how could any other record could possibly hope to compete, right?

So yeah, you can keep your holy roller brackets and hope and all that buzzing in your ears, thanks. (See what I did there, Meng?) I’ll stick with my good beginnings.