Of Monsters And Men

Type – Album Review  

Title – My Head Is An Animal

Artist – Of Monsters And Men

Huge stars in their native Iceland, rockers Of Monsters and Men have what it takes to achieve the same success in Britain. Combining Arcade Fire's exuberance and Mumford & Sons' undemanding take on folk. And yet for all the wide-eyed charm of its finest songs – recent single Dirty Paws is electrifying.

The debut album by this Icelandic sextet finally gets a British release, a full year after topping their home chart and six months after making the US Top Ten. The record’s primary appeal is that it straddles two seemingly irreconcilable genres. The scrubby acoustic guitars, glockenspiels and campfire songs of  nature and fairy tales seem to reek of indie-folk, as do the cooing vocals of Kate Nash soundalike Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, who tends to sing an octave higher than her male co-singer Ragnar ‘Raggi’ þórhallsson. 

However, before it degenerates into a painfully whimsical world of hairslides and gingham frocks, the rhythm section adds a touch of heavy metal menace – all stomping drums, distorted guitars and anthemic  chant-along vocals. The resultant stadium folk collision just about works.

This is a fantastic debut album from these Icelandic rockers and we really enjoyed it. We want to know what you thought of this album, leave us a comment below telling us.

                                                                                                -Gillian_x3