At Home

As I may have mentioned on these pages before, Iceland's Sigur Rós (regardless of my inability to properly pronounce their name) have long been one of my favorite bands - if not my absolute favorite. All of their albums pack an incredible punch with me, heightening whatever emotions I'm feeling at any given moment no matter what. It doesn't matter what emotion it is, they have the amazing ability to fit anything I feel and make that emotion all the more textured and assured.

One of my favorite movies has to be the documentary about their travels through Iceland as they put together a free, unannounced tour through all parts of the country no matter how small. This journey in 2006 was one of uncertainty (as the band says in the film, they never knew if anyone would actually show up), but it ended up being a uniting point of pure positivity for a country that has seen troubling times befall them. This documentary is called Heima ("at home" in Icelandic) and is alternately the world's greatest advertisement for Iceland and perhaps my favorite performance/music film ever. I find myself being compelled to watch it on a nearly monthly basis (strangely almost always combined with Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, which makes sense from a Rob Gordon of High Fidelity organization sort of way as I purchased them on the same day), always finding new and enriching reasons to fall in love with it once again.

If you're a fan of Sigur Rós and you haven't seen it yet, shame on you. It's a beautiful film and something that should be experienced. If you aren't a fan of Sigur Rós, even bigger shame on you and I highly suggest you get on that right now because they are one of the most remarkably talented bands I've ever heard.

If you need convincing, watch the video above. It's from Heima and is of "Sé Lest", one of their standout tracks from 2005's remarkable album Takk...