Anders Hanson

Until a fortnight ago I was still listening obsessively to Kosheen and Amy MacDonald after going to see them live, but the last two weeks have been completely different. But most of my listening recently has been just before going to bed to help me relax at the end of another long and busy day.

On my iPod I have a playlist of songs by different artists that I love to listen to when I am relaxing, but lately it has been something different that I have been listening to - Sigur Rós. I have only fairly recently got in to Sigur Rós when I heard two of the earlier albums Ágætis Byrjun and ( ). It’s odd music as I only find myself listening to it in its entirety and never just the odd tracks. But it is brilliant music to just lose yourself into and forget about anything else that is going on in the world. Indeed it is often so relaxing that I end up falling asleep. Sigur Rós is both calming, relaxing but also inspiring and at times uplifting. It is an unusual combination, but it is undoubtedly helped by the lack of any need to conform to a traditional musical format, with its quirky mix of instrumental and words designed to fit the music by using their own made up language, albeit one that is loosely based on Icelandic.

I have to give a mention to another song though - Let Me Know by Róisín Murphy. I listened to this song simply because of the good reviews, because I was a bit of a fan of Moloko and because of her Sheffield connections. Although this song is completely different from what Moloko did, it is a brilliant track. It is electronic, dance and pop all rolled in to one, and has a slightly retro 80s/90s sound whilst also feeling very contemporary. A great song, and I must now listen to more of the album to see if it is to become a must have.