Of Monsters and Men make their return with “All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade”
By Lucy
Icelandic quintet Of Monsters and Men have made their triumphant return to music with the announcement of their fourth full-length album, "All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade," and the news that they will be returning to North America for a tour later this year.
Of Monsters and Men were quick to enter the mainstream scene back in 2011 with the release of their debut album's lead single: a trumpet-heavy, unexpectedly explosive track called "Little Talks" that immediately blasted the group to global recognition. Today, "Little Talks" remains the highest-charting single on the Billboard Hot 100 chart by any Icelandic artist, with the official music video boasting almost 400 million YouTube views. The release of the full album, "My Head Is An Animal," only caused their ever-growing fanbase to expand even further. In the following years, their bright, folky sound became intertwined in the soundtracks for various major films including The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, The Walking Dead, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, all while the band continued to play for sold-out crowds around the world.
In the time since its release, "Little Talks" has cemented itself as one of the major songs of the decade. Of Monsters and Men are now a band synonymous with the stomp-and-holler musical movement of the early 2010s, with their rousing choruses, acoustic instrumentals, and loud percussion often causing comparisons to be drawn to bands like The Lumineers and Mumford & Sons. However, despite their unquestionable success in that genre, Of Monsters and Men have never been one to linger with a certain sound. Their 2015 sophomore album "Beneath the Skin" saw them working with more rock and orchestral genres, while their 2019 album "Fever Dream" pivoted entirely to electronic pop music. Consistent growth and evolution has always seemed to be a core principle of Of Monsters and Men's work as a band: it can even be traced back to a Tumblr post from 2013, only barely a year after their first release, where co-lead vocalist and instrumentalist Nanna Bryndís Himarsdóttir was asked whether their next record would be similar to their previous work. To this, she responded by saying that, though they had not even begun working their sophomore album yet, she "[hoped] that it won't be the same" and that "it bothers [her] when bands don't evolve their sound at all."
Their two latest singles (which were written, recorded, and self-produced by the band at their home recording studio in Iceland) in over three years were released in the first weeks of July and August alongside accompanying music videos. These songs— titled "Television Love" and "Ordinary Creature" respectively— are sonically unlike anything the band has released before, though some fans have described them as something of an amalgamation of their previous three albums. Nevertheless, both songs contain the signature dreamy instrumentals and back-and-forth vocalizations that fans of Of Monsters and Men have come to love. That airy, dreamlike quality is only amplified by the unburdened lyrics of "Television Love" (where the band asks, "What if we don't connect the head now?/What if we just don't think at all now?") and the beautifully isolated Icelandic landscapes shown in both music videos, which were recorded throughout the endless sunshine of the summer solstice. Overall, "Television Love" and "Ordinary Creature" are Of Monsters and Men at their most sincere, and certainly act as an indicator of the exceedingly high quality that can be expected from the full album release in October.
The group describes "All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade" as centering itself around "feelings that might seem at odds with each other, but co-exist simultaneously and need one another." According to them, the 13-track album consists of "takes both big and small," from "the loneliness and longing of living in a block surrounded by strangers, to missed connections in a grocery store, to the lives and losses of a community of mice in a vacant house during winter." The unusual nature of the album name is only echoed by the tracklist titles, which include "The Towering Skyscraper at the End of the Road," "Styrofoam Cathedral," and "Tuna in a Can."
Aside from scattered performances in their home country, Of Monsters and Men have not performed live since the latter section of their "FEVER DREAM" tour was cancelled due to the pandemic. Their highly anticipated sixteen-stop North American leg will kick off on October 28 at HISTORY in Toronto, and will make its way through dates in Boston, Chicago, Nashville, and many more before closing out the tour in late November with a show at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California. Icelandic singer-songwriter Árný Margret will be supporting them at each show. With general tickets being sold starting on August 15, and "All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade" releasing on October 17, this is certainly a new era— by an already iconic band— that is not to be missed.