i have so much love and emotional history wrapped up in this song.
it all started that time in the tv room, i think it must’ve been junior year; a bunch of us were cuddled up on various squashy couches watching the life aquatic. and that scene at the end with the jaguar shark came on, and the soundtrack sounded so intangibly familiar, and then all of a sudden i knew. i recognized the song from that night in R’s room, so long ago. he told me about how his ex always used to fall asleep to sigur rós while he lay there holding her, and that it’d taken quite some time but he was finally able to listen to them again. i remember marveling at this song, and how epically, hauntingly gorgeous it was, and how perfectly it would fit as the soundtrack to a stirring emotional climax in an off-beat movie. and then, as the various characters reached forward to touch bill murray’s shoulders, the memory came rushing back and i was just overwhelmed with feeling.
so of course, i ran straight to B to tell him all of this, to have him protect me from my twisted regrets and bittersweet memories. and of course, he comforted me and was enamored by my story and fell more in love with me and with starálfur—it is a beautiful song, after all. so then when i decided to make him a mix CD, songs for us to lay in bed and listen to on lazy sundays, what other song could i possibly choose for the closing track?
it’s funny, i remember when i was first making the CD, i entertained the idea that some day B would be playing it for some other girl as they lay in bed on a late morning. and i liked that thought; the idea that i would be somehow helping him with his love life later on down the road. and then he did move on and invite another girl into his bed, and for a long time that was too painful to deal with. but i think now, finally, i want him to play the CD for her. i think she’d really like it, and that would make him happy. which would make me happy too.
2 years ago