The Pelican’s Perch

Michelle, my beautiful girlfriend, finally moved on to bigger and better things today, leaving for Annapolis, Maryland pursuing that next step in her career that I stood behind 100%.  It’s an understatement saying it was hard to let her go, since she’d been my best friend for the last nine months, but we both had a strange understanding from the first day I met her that she was only here for so long with her internship, and no matter what happened between us, once today arrived, she was gone.  That timeline ended up making the little bumps in the road seem trivial and made us make the most out of the time we had.  Which, honestly, ended up making our relationship by far the best I’ve ever had.  I’m sad, sure, but I made peace with her leaving a long time ago.  Something that some people in our friend circle are still baffled by, but is also something that made Michelle and I so great.

So, on my day off oddly enough, when I wanted the least time to think about everything and got the most, I found Jónsi & Alex.  It is a collaboration between Jon Thor Birgisson, lead singer of Sigur Ros, and Alex Somers, who have been making music together since 2003.  I forget exactly how I came across their new album this morning, but I’ve had it on repeat all day.  You may listen to the stream of the album below and think, that’s about the last album I’d listen to on the day fate finally arrived between my girlfriend and I, but for me nothing could be more perfect.

Jonsi & Alex create music that resemble Sigur Ros in every way, but never reach anything above simple atmospheric beauty.  It’s music that can be thought of as sad or optimistic.  I heard the optimism and happiness in their music from the first couple of minutes of “Happiness” and all the way through Riceboy Sleeps. (watch the making of video below and I’m sure you’ll see the optimistic side as they talk about the stories behind each song)  And at the least, it’s simply a beautiful album that fits perfectly as uplifting background music to this rainy, lazy, and emotional day.

I hope most of you listen to this stream and find something unique to love about it, and I’m sure all you Sigur Ros fans will enjoy it immensely.  I sure have.  But I felt like writing this not out of pity for myself at all, but in celebration of all the great times Michelle and I had.  I regret absolutely nothing during our nine months together, and for most people, that’s a bold statement to claim for nine months spent with someone.  I wish her nothing but success in Annapolis, which I know she’ll have since she’s an incredibly smart cookie, and until I get up there to her again, here’s your goofy, musically obsessed, red head from Missouri wishing you all the luck in the world.

Track listing:
1. Happiness
2. Atlas Song
3. Indian Summer
4. Stokkseyri
5. Boy 1904
6. All The Big Trees
7. Daníell In The Sea
8. Howl
9. Sleeping Giant