Disc Frenzy

It has been a long time between drinks for Icelandic folk rock band Of Monsters and Men. Formed in 2010 to compete in a ‘battle of the bands’ contest, they released their debut album My Head is an Animal the following year. Another two albums followed in 2015 and 2019 before the COVID pandemic reportedly put their activities on the back burner. Co-lead singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir released a solo album in 2023, but it has taken six years from Fever Dream for the band to reassemble with a new offering.

It is recognisably the same band, albeit a little softer in tone and with a deeper melancholic style. The vocals are still shared back and forth between Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson, and that remains one the band’s core strengths. Their sweeping melodic arrangements also return, perhaps with a greater sense of consistency from song to song and a stronger sense of polish. Altogether it feels mature: its members were in their early twenties when they debuted, and now they are entering the second half of their thirties. It is very sensitive, quite beautiful stuff.

The song “Fruit Bat” is an exemplar of this new, more rounded style. It is a long song, running more than eight minutes overall, and that gives the band the opportunity to both enter and exit the number with a soft, growing sense of power and emotion.

The old style has not been entirely abandoned. “Ordinary Creature”, which was released in advance as one of the singles, is a much poppier and up-tempo song that reflects a lot of Of Monsters and Men’s earlier hits. There is also a bit more energy to “Styrofoam Cathedral”, helping to give the album’s second half a bit more momentum and drive.

As a full album, All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade carries a lot of emotional heft and represents a newfound maturity for Of Monsters and Men. I do suspect, however, more than a few long-term fans will miss the presence of the more energetic, joyful numbers that originally made their reputation.

All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade is Of Monsters of Men’s fourth studio album. It was released on 17 October 2025.