Ágætis Byrjun

A Good Beginning

Bright hope is true

Bright town

As we walk downtown

Meet friends and fatigue

We celebrate the day

A two years Wait

Distant dream is born

Eat and drink filled

And pay for ourselves

With everything we have today

We sit down excited

And listen to ourselves play in rhythm

In tune with music

No one seems to listen

This is completely different

We lived in another world

Where we were never invisible

A few days later

We speak again

But the sound was not good

And we were all in agreement

In agreement about most things

We'll do better next time

But this is a good beginning

...þetta er ágætis byrjun...

(English translation of "Ágætis Byrjun", a song by Sigur Rós)

Rumbling, pings, tjúúúú, palindromic strings, bjargvættur, the coughing brass intro, bamm bamm bamm, the crecendo, the flute, the simplicity, and it fades out. Press play again. A lot of people have one album that changes their lives, something that in some way alters everything after the first moment the hear it. "Ágætis Byrjun", a good beginning, is actually Sigur Rós' second beginning. three years previously they released their debut album, "Von". After that the trio became a quartet and they evolved into something astounding. As suggested by a lyric from Ágætis Byrjun's title track, Sigur Rós had bigger ambitions after releasing Von: "Við munum gera betur næst / þetta er ágætis byrjun (we will do better next time / this is a good beginning)".

Ágætis Byrjun was an album that came literally out of nowhere and seemed to tug at the heartstrings of those who least expected it. No one expected an album by an unknown band of four shy Icelandic men in their early twenties, singing in Icelandic, would become the worldwide music phenomenon it became. The record label projected the album to sell 1500 copies - it has to date sold several million copies. suddenly the band's tongue-in-cheek claim on their website in 1999 didn't seem so crazy after all:

"We do not intend to become superstars or millionaires. We are simply gonna change music forever, and the way people think about music" (Jónsi Þór Birgisson)

Taken from Ágætis Byrjun page on the Sigur Rós website