Album Review: Of Monsters and Men ‘My Head Is An Animal’
When I think of music from Iceland, the artists coming to mind are very bold and innovative, and probably couldn’t have come from any other corner of the world. A band like Sigur Ros is totally unique, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else doing the things Bjork has done over the course of her career. It’s a funny little country with colorful houses and even more vibrant characters, and you get a bit of that from Of Monsters and Men, but they seem to borrow as much as they can from elsewhere rather than innovating.
My Head Is An Animal is a very cool album, loaded with great songs, of which it is hard to select a few that stand out–for all the right reasons. The band shamelessly borrows from as many bands as they can, combining their own personalities with the very best of indie rock. It’s a little difficult to get a sense for the band themselves, hidden behind the many masks they wear, but at least I know they’re into great music.
‘Dirty Paws’ is the opener, a simple folk tune about animals in the woods at war with a hive of bees. The song has anthemic ambitions, which may at first seem out of place, but the band makes sense of the dichotomy and everything pulls together into a perfect little indie package.
A driving beat and celtic feeling dominate ‘King and Lionheart’, which wants to sound a little too much like Mumford and Sons. Later, on ‘Your Bones’, the band marries their Mumford mode with Beirut and echoing surf guitars, which is a lot more interesting. There is a marked difference between emulating one specific and defined sound, and drawing from several at once to make something new from those ingredients.
On the whole, the album pulls together shades of not only Mumford and Sons and Beirut, but Florence + The Machine, Young the Giant, and more than anything else, Arcade Fire. It’s hard to imagine that they would be able to do this without a misstep, but they really don’t falter, and fans of any of those acts should love them.
‘Numb Bears’ features cute and playful vocals, and a style a little more unique. It shows a bit more of what Of Monsters and Men can bring to the table on their own, and it stands up to the rest of My Head Is An Animal. When they show these clarifying glimpses of what makes them different it shines very brightly.
The vocals of the male and female singers, Ragnar Þórhallsson and Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, are absolutely perfectly complementary to each other in their folk-indie aesthetic. On most songs they sing and harmonize together, and ‘Sloom’, which is closer to a classic duet, showcases them at their best both together and apart.
‘Little Talks’ is very strongly influenced by early Arcade Fire. The bands also share the same whimsical, almost obsessive focus on childhood and childishness. In some ways they actually do Arcade Fire better than Arcade fire, from the “hey hey!” shouts on ‘From Finner’ to the various singalong moments peppered throughout the album’s dozen tracks. They show absolutely no hesitance to command aspects of that sound, which Arcade Fire have themselves begun to shy away from.
A highlight of the album for me is the combination of ‘Six Weeks’ and ‘From Finner’, presenting a determination to be content with mild adversity, and to face challenges with a brave smile and ambition. Few bands can get away with these songs without it coming across as lame or campy, but again, Of Monsters and Men are completely without shame, totally confident, and it’s to their great benefit.
As much as My Head Is An Animal is an extremely derivative album, it’s also very good, and the band certainly does bring a lot to the table that is their own–primarily in the way that they blend their influences to find their own footing. If that involves extensive pillaging from the best indie bands on the radio today, so be it, because they do it just about perfectly.