There's not much guitar-strumming in this post of mine, but it features a nice song anyway. I posted this a short while ago on Noisedfisk, but since I have no idea if anyone is actually reading it I'd like to post it here also. It features a woman in her thirties with a voice not entirely unlike Alison Shaw of Cranes, and a 61 years old guy.

Although Iceland is a beautiful country, has the cleanest air, best water and the most beautiful women, there are days that many Icelanders wish they lived elsewhere. In fact, this includes most if not all days between september and june, when the wind blows fiercely from all directions, and showels snow, sleet, rain or hail in your face and through every crack and crevice in your clothes. It's dark when you wake up and go to work, and dark when you go home again. Then we wish we'd been born in Hawaii or Honolulu.

With this fact in mind a young and talented musician named Magnús Þór wrote a song which was released on his debut album back in 1972. He used the artist name Megas and the album was also named Megas. This first album of his spawned heated discussions and is still the subject of much controversy, because he dared to poke mercyless fun at Iceland's greatest heroes; the national poet, the hero of indiependence, the fierce warriors of the Icelandic sagas and last but not least Ingólfur Arnarson, the founder of Reykjavík, the nations now proud capital.

In the song he says that we speak fondly of this Ingólfur in speeches, but deep down inside we wish that his ship had sunk on the way here; meaning that he did us no favour when settling this miserably windy rock in the middle of nowhere.

Megas has since had a colorful and no less controversial career in music, he's been branded a drug-addict, and a pervert even, but is still releasing records, that I, for one, enjoy mightily. And despite this controversy, and the fact that his music was for a long time banned by the Icelandic national radio, he is now generally regarded as a master songwriter and an admirable poet.


Enter Magga Stína who's also a highly talented musician, who first sprang onto the stage in around 1989 with her band Risaeðlan. The band was signed to the Sugarcubes' Bad Taste label and released a few poptastic and fun albums, chock full of unusual popsongs laden with violins, saxophones and bongos. A few weeks ago she released an album which is a tribute to Megas, containing eleven of his songs sung by her, some of them previously unreleased. And one of them is the controversial song about Iceland's first settler, and here I offer you both versions of this beautiful song, which I think may be enjoyable to listen to though you may not understand the lyrics. And tell me who you think is a better singer! :o)

Magga Stína - Um óþarflega fundvísi Ingólfs Arnarsonar
Megas - Um óþarflega fundvísi Ingólfs Arnarsonar

Furthermore, on the off chance that I will be flogged by the Icelandic Association of Musicians, here are, for a limited time, two of my very favorite Megas songs. Both are hummable and the former is toe-tappping to say the least:

Megas - Ragnheiður biskupsdóttir (from the album Millilending)
Megas - Dauði Snorra Sturlusonar (from the debut album; Megas)

More info on Megas