Richard Thompson was born in London in 1949. But his father was Scottish and, as a teenager growing up in the 50s and early 60s, Richard was not only exposed to Rock’n'Roll, and then Rock, but also to his father’s apparently extensive collection of traditional Scottish music and Jazz.

Which helps to explain why, although Richard is often described as a Rock guitarist, his songs actually don’t sound very ‘Rock’ at all when you listen closely.

His love for unusual non-Blues-based tunings has a Jazz feel to it. The drone-like hums in his guitar-playing, and even in his songs’ vocals, sound like they were ’inspired’ by years of Scottish bag-pipe indoctrination. And his distinctly non-Rock melodies and subject matter often seem to have more in common with traditional Scottish or Gaelic singing than Elvis.

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About time we left the USA for a while and visited Iceland again. Literally. Because this version of ‘Popplagio’ was recorded live in Iceland and is part of the exquisite ‘Heima’ film of Sigur Ros’s 2006 tour of their homeland.

Like practically all of Sigur Ros’s songs, ‘Popplagio’ is sung in Hopelandic, a language they make up as they go along but which is loosely based on Icelandic (see ABON 0040).

And like on most other Sigur tracks, here Jonsi uses his lyrics and vocals more as sound than words, communicating through feel and tone rather than vocabulary. How successful he is at this is demonstrated by the fact that he can borrow words and whole phrases from other Sigur tracks, that you’ve heard before, often several times before, yet manage to make them convey something completely different on this occasion. And on this occasion that something different eventuually becomes more terrifying angel of the apocalypse than the angel of salvation he more commonly suggests.

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Sigur Ros are from Iceland. I’ve no evidence to support this but I like to think that Sigur Ros might just have been influenced by The Fall when in 1982 our heroes from Manchester became the first band I know  to tour Iceland. No idea what the population of Iceland made of The Fall but maybe the fledgling Sigur were inspired by Mark E Smith’s majestic but very skewed take on the English language to create their own version of Icelandic. Because, Sigur sing in Hopelandic – a version of Icelandic but one they invented themselves.

Might be a surprise to all those who believe lyrics are more important than music but to my English ears the noises Sigur Ros make communicate more profoundly than the lyrics of practically anyone else currently singing in English. Even though I couldn’t translate one word of it for you. Except perversely on this track which is the only one they’ve ever recorded in English. So hauntingly beautiful is it though that: 1. I had to choose it and 2. it always makes me cry. Which is why I’ve chosen it for ABON while I’m not here to listen.

Released 2008.

Available on the CD ‘Me Su í Eyrum Vi Spilum Endalaust’ which translates as ’With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly’: Amazon.

Of course if you know someone really really special you might want to buy the Deluxe Edition which contains amongst other things a numbered unique piece of genuine 35mm film from the video of the making of the album. In which case you need: SigurRos