Of Monsters And Men – Beneath The Skin
- Written by Zoe Wallbank
Of Monsters and Men are finally back with their second album Beneath The Skin, following the success of their huge debut album My Head Is An Animal in 2011, which sold over two million copies worldwide. The Icelandic quintet has big expectations to live up to.
The album is lyrically brilliant, emotional but relatable without losing “casual listeners”, and the perfect balance between metaphor and honesty. The strongest examples are the slow and beautifully touching tracks: ‘Organs’ that contains lyrics like “I pulled out my tongue because it reminds me of how is all went wrong” and ‘I Of The Storm’ with pleading lyrics “Are you really going to love me when I’m gone? / I fear you won’t / I fear you don’t”. The tracks generally start slower building up to a slightly more upbeat melody allowing the listener time to focus on the lyrics and tone of the song/album. Tracks such as ‘Hunger’, a catchy song that gains momentum as the song plays.
The album can be spilt into slower and more upbeat songs, possibly because the album was produced with Rich Costey in studios in both Iceland and Los Angeles. The more upbeat side of the album include tracks like ‘Wolves Without Teeth’, ‘We Sink’ and ‘Human’, all of which have a more upbeat melody from the start whilst maintaining the strong lyrics such as “I know it’s a waste of time chasing in the dark”, and “Breathe in / Breathe out / Let the human in”. All of which creates a sound perfect for summer nights fitting for their release date, the sold out London show on July 16th, and no doubt a full and busy festival season.
Also, there is a refreshing mixture of lead male and female vocals, not just duets but having the tracks truly shared out, it’s not only engaging and attention grabbing, but something new and exciting.