After winning their national battle of the bands competition, there was much hype surrounding ‘Of Monster and Men’. After being dubbed as the ‘new Arcade Fire’ by Rolling Stone magazine, there were high expectations for the Icelandic band to deliver an exciting album. Added to this expectation was also the pressure of following in the footsteps of fellow Icelandic band ‘Sigur Ros’, who have gone on to achieve global success. Sure enough, they delivered a fantastic album.
The beauty in this album is the plethora of uplifting, anthemic sounds emanating through it’s every orifice. The album title itself gives a taster for the sound of the album, ‘My Head is An Animal’, wild, liberated and beautiful. The sound of the album fluctuates between pulsating anthems such as ‘Mountain Sound’ and ‘Little Talks’ that are irresistible to the more acoustic, chilled and stripped back sound of ‘Slow And Steady’ and ‘Love Love Love’. As the album cover depicts, their album is similar to that of the ocean, changing from a wild uncontrollable force to that of a calm, serene and tranquil demeanour. Like the ocean, you must appreciate the beauty of this album.
The album is reminiscent of the self-titled debut album from ‘The Head and The Heart’, although their album lacked the anthemic songs that feature so heavily on ‘My Head is An Animal’. ‘The Head And The Heart’ represents the more acoustic sound of ‘Of Monsters and Men’. ‘My Head is An Animal’ will be enjoyed by fans of ‘Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’, ‘Mumford & Sons’, ‘The Lumineers’ and ‘Grouplove’.
I had the privilege of watching ‘Of Monsters and Men’s’ set at this year’s Leeds festival. It was a pleasure to see people who had not heard of ‘Of Monsters and Men’ enthralled by their enchanting sounds. Their performance exuberated a restless energy determined to consume it’s audience in a mindless frenzy of feet tapping and humming the dulcet tones of the many choruses. Highlights of their live performance were ‘Little Talks’, ‘Mountain Sound’ and ‘Six Weeks’, these three tracks are bound to convert many music fans. With the lyrics of ‘Mountain Sound’ echoing around the arena, “I heard them calling in the distance, so I packed my things and ran away from all the trouble I had caused with my two hands.” For me, these lyrics serve as a poignant reminder of the mistakes we make as people and how sometimes we don’t want to deal with our flaws and would rather run away from all the trouble we’ve caused.
My favourite track of the album is ‘Six Weeks’, the lyrics “Alone, I fight these animals. Alone, until I get home.” Stick out for me because we all have issues and feel we’re on our own sometimes but with the support of people in your home, for me this isn’t restricted to your family, you realise you aren’t alone in dealing with these issues. In my opinion, I love this album so much because I can relate to it and for me that is what music is about and although I want people to enjoy this album, not everyone will, because different people relate to different music, which where in lies the brilliance of music. It is difficult to pick a top three tracks because I could easily pick a Top 7, but for people looking to get into this band, I would advise you to look up ‘Little Talks’, ‘Six Weeks’ and ‘Mountain Sound’.
I enjoy the contrast between the pulsating anthems and the slower, more stripped back songs, on top of this I can relate to the lyrics and I believe a lot of people will and the popularity of this album will continue to grow. I believe there is room for improvement, but I wouldn’t like to see a change of style just yet from the Icelandic outfit, I would like to see them sticking to the sound that has seen them become so popular and I look forward to hearing more people enjoying the sounds of ‘Of Monsters and Men’.