Louis Greaves
★★★★☆
Icelandic indie sweethearts Of Monsters and Men are back with their long-awaited fourth album, All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade. This sprawling yet pensive outing still shines with their signature stadium-ready folk rock.
One of the leading bands in the ‘stomp-slap-hey’ era that swept the 2010s with their inescapable anthem ‘Little Talks’, Of Monsters and Men have since outgrown the fedoras and flannel shirts. While peers like The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons can’t quite shake off their banjos (or the ‘millennial-core’ tag), that now-ridiculed aesthetic feels like ancient history for this group.
Of Monsters and Men is fronted by the elegant and ethereal Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and human teddybear Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, and these vikings have refined their harmonies to fit brilliant pop writing. Nanna – now also a solo artist after her 2023 record How to Start a Garden – balances her husky and tender vocals on top of Raggi’s nasally bawl, pulling off a powerful double act.
At their intimate release party in Brighton on 17 October 2025, the chemistry between them was touching and adorable. Brother-sister charm and cheek emanated from the stage with every stripped-back version of their new music. Raggi – constantly heckled by fans – can give as well as take, and batted back playful replies in Icelandic and English.
Now streamlined into a tight five-piece band, their deceptively simple songs still sound open and cinematic. No doubt you’ll hear some of them in those kitschy hiking videos that pop up on Instagram around autumn.
Track and production breakdown
Lead single ‘Television Love’ sets the tone – the group isn’t shying away from modern glitchy synths (now a staple of indie intros), and have never been more lyrically grounded in the real world. Having outgrown the Icelandic fairytales that characterised their debut My Head is an Animal, Of Monsters and Men now weave yarns about novacane, parking lots and… tuna.
Among some of the more zany titles like ‘Fruit Bat’ and ‘Mouse Parade’, ‘Tuna in a Can’ is a fantastically well-written and produced song (given the source material). This sound is what indie contemporaries The Head and the Heart were going for with ‘Rhythm and Blues’.
I spoke to engineer Martin Cooke – who worked on the band’s sophomore album Beneath the Skin – back in 2022.
“Layering and the sound of the room is a big factor in the drum tone,” Cooke says of drummer Arnar Rósenkranz’s signature percussion sound. While All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade was recorded back in their old studio in Skarkali, Iceland, its drums are definitely more stripped back than in previous albums. However, this allows Rósenkranz’s virtuosic rhythms to cut through the mix.
And cut through they do – particularly in ‘Styrofoam Cathedral’ and the highlight single ‘Ordinary Creature’, which is the most drum heavy of the lot. Its kinetic beat and alienated subject matter harkens back to the band’s previous single ‘The Visitor’. But hey, if it works, why change it?
Despite being a slower and sleepier tail end to the album, ‘The End’ offers a nostalgic duet over fingerpicked acoustic guitar – the exact sound that made Of Monsters and Men famous with ‘Dirty Paws’ way back in 2011.
My takeaways
Best song: ‘Ordinary Creature’
One to skip: ‘The Block’
Dark horse: ‘Barefoot in the Snow’ (imagine guitars like Glasvegas with the slick underwater beats of The XX)
Evidently a lot of love and pain have gone into this project. Is it as good as their previous album Fever Dream? Not really. Although it took me months to appreciate that as an electric departure from their old sound. Who knows what time will do to this new album.
Is it still damn good, wholesome and emotional music to sing/dance/cry to? You bet.
Will it work in my autumn Instagram round-up? Definitely, but I don’t envy you having to choose just one great clip to use.
A decade and a half has seen this band grow into a mature staple of international indie, and they’re still doing what they do best. They’ve lost none of their earnest, genuine love of music along the way. This natural charm makes them as at home strumming in a living room as rocking in a stadium.
