SÖNGVAKEPPNIN 128: "BURY THE MOON"
For WV 128 I put my trust into one of my dearest artists and singers overall; a guy whose debut album back then broke multiple records in Iceland, a guy who was my most listened artist around 2014-2015, a guy who I've already seen live on stage and who I sent thrice to WV. If this wasn't enough already, he is also partly responsible for my nickname choice.
Ladies and gentlemen, give a warm welcome to...
Ásgeir!
Although I still have plenty of older songs of him up my sleeve I decided to follow my heart and only focus on his latest album in this NF, that got released in February and that is named "Bury the Moon". It was released together with "Sátt" which consists of the same songs only with Icelandic lyrics. I choose the English versions of the songs simply because I can find all of them on YouTube more or less unrestricted. There was an issue with one song only, but I will explain it later. As far as I know, his songs are first written in Icelandic mostly with lyrics by his amazing dad Einar Georg, who is an acclaimed and notorious poet in Iceland. The english translation are written by Ásgeirs good friend John Grant, an polyglot singer-songwriter from the USA who has been living in Iceland for many years now, though. I also gave him a shot at WV, back in edition 68, I believe.
The selection is a colourful mixture of different approaches. Catchy indie-pop, dreamy guitar folk, nostalgic folk-pop, one dramatic synth- and strings driven ballad...
Here they are:
1. Youth
2. Eventide
3. Lazy Giants
4. Rattled Snow
5. Until Daybreak
Youth was one of the pre-released songs, the first one to be precise. It is a nostalgic reflection of his childhood... the time when you just could go out and play, without having to care about duties and stuff.
Eventide is the most stripped-down song of the album but also the bitter-sweetest. It is about the loss of a beloved person.
Lazy Giants is another pre-released song, that criiticizes the economic growth and the risk of a collapse. The inspiration for the video, a lot of different frames of him playing the song in different locations , comes from Kurt Viles and Courtney Barnetts video for their song "Over Everything"
Rattled Snow is one of the darkest, most dramatical, yet most electronic and most modern songs of the album. The lyrics were written by a friend of Ásgeir, named Julius, who was thinking about a conversation he had with another friend that had a rough childhood. He was telling him about these walls he had built around him made of rocks, where no one could reach him, hurt or love him. he had not been happy there but it felt like a safe place. However, when he spoke to Julius the sun was beginning to shine through the walls and it was getting warmer inside.
Until Daybreak is an incredibly catchy tune with a very peculiar chord progression. Ásgeir stated he wasn't convinced of this song at the beginning, however I loved this straight away. Sadly however, I had to go with a shortened 3:00 minutes version (Eurovision says hello, lol) he once uploaded on YouTube. There is missing an intermediate part before the last chorus and the intro, amongst other parts. The original 4:30 minutes version is nowhere in YouTube. The Icelandic version "Hringsol" you can find at least twice. One version available only in Germany-Austria-Switzerland and another version available in countries like UK, Italy, Poland, however not in Germany, France, USA and Canada, for example. Long story short: There was no unrestriced version of that song in YouTube, that's why I chose the cut version of the song. But I think the 3:00 minutes version is nice anyway
+++ Btw, The most songs here seem to banned in Denmark (for whatever reason). So if you are from Denmark or reside there right now and want to vote here, just let me know +++
You can this time rate each song individually from 1 to 10 (no 12 this time, I think 1 to 10 is enough choice)
Informations about the deadline you will get early enough
Thanks for your attention
Voted: hu