Of Monsters and Men
Band form
2010
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty OST Album Review
By Joe Wilde in Music Reviews on 09 December 2013
What with 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' not being released until Boxing Day and knowing little about what the film actually entails - Ben Stiller goes on some grand adventure to save his job and Sean Penn makes an appearance at some point - rather than approach this review by discussing how well the songs work as a soundtrack, it seemed best to approach it as a compilation with no hitherto connections.
José Gonzalez has a handful of original songs on the album, also featuring with his side project Junip for a pair of back-to-back tracks. His third solo contribution '#9 Dream' is easily his best, his hazy vocals carried along by a round, guitar-led beat and subtle yet sweetly used orchestration overlaid on to the track as it progresses. The Junip track 'Far Away' is another standout; the steady build of the humming bass injecting a sense of urgency into the mostly gentle soundtrack. Of Monsters and Men's 'Dirty Paws' is another notable cut from the OST, the interweaving of Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson's finely-tuned harmonies proving their worth as always.
Continue reading: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty OST Album Review
As Fans Gather For 'T In The Park,' Police Crack Down On Drugs
By Lauren James in Music / Festivals on 12 July 2013
Are you ready to rock, Scotland? T in the Park ready to kick off a weekend of musical wonderment but not without a heavy police presence to cut drug use.
The sun is shining, the line-up is terrific; T In The Park 2013 is about to celebrate its 20th anniversary with thousands of fans and seven stages. Performers during the three day festival will include Mumford & Sons, Rihanna, The Killers, Ke$ha, Kendrick Lamar, Emeli Sandé, The Proclaimers, and many more massive mainstream names. The recently revived German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk will also be making their festival debut in a hotly anticipated set that is rumoured to include 3D visuals, as well as My Bloody Valentine.
Kraftwerk To Bring Their Machine-Like Electronica To T In The Park.
T must surely rival similarly huge English festivals Glastonbury and Download for the strongest line-up of the year, with Mercury Prize winning Alt-J, New York's Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Frank Ocean, Paloma Faith and Icelandic newcomers Of Monsters and Men also playing across the weekend to celebrate two decades of the Scottish event. Festival director Geoff Ellis said, according to BBC's Newsbeat, "It doesn't feel like 20 years since we started and it's a milestone." The festival, which has been held annually since 1994 has been held at Balado airfield in Kinross-shire since 1997 and now attracts 85,000 fans and 35,000 campers to the second largest greenfield event in the UK.
Continue reading: As Fans Gather For 'T In The Park,' Police Crack Down On Drugs
Bonnaroo And Ustream Announce 2013 Webcast Line-up Featuring Paul Mccartney, Mumford And Sons And Many More
Posted on13 June 2013
A Week In Music, Daft Punk Make Triumphant Return With Get Lucky, Chvrches EP Precedes Anticipated Album, Vampire Weekend Interviewed At Coachella
By Hayley Avron in Music / Festivals on 22 April 2013
A Week in Videos... Undoubtedly the most eagerly-anticipated video of the week comes from Daft Punk, who return to the scene with ‘Get Lucky.’ Featuring Pharrell on vocals and the legend that is Nile Rogers on guitar, the track has already broken daily play records on Spotify and quickly became one of the most talked-about tracks online. A classic in the making, Roger’s distinctive guitar sound lends the track an authentic disco edge.
Heavy on the expletives, low on production costs, this Frank Turner video for ‘Plain Sailing Weather’ sees the angry troubadour continuing the confessional vibes of his last single ‘Recovery.’ Playing with his band in a church, the track begins with Frank playing alone, with his guitar, before the band kick in with him for the chorus.
Continue reading: A Week In Music, Daft Punk Make Triumphant Return With Get Lucky, Chvrches EP Precedes Anticipated Album, Vampire Weekend Interviewed At Coachella
Bonnaroo 2013 Lineup Announcement
Posted on20 February 2013
Coachella 2013 Lineup Announcement
Posted on29 January 2013
A Week In Music Featuring: Muse, Mumford & Sons, Alpines, Miguel, Of Monsters And Men, Alt-J And Much More!
By Simon Jay Catling in Music Reviews on 01 October 2012
Albums of Note...After writing one of the official tracks for the London 2012 Olympics, Muse release their latest album, Supremacy. Our reviewer finds something lacking in the band's latest full-length offering, remaking that it sounds more like a soundtrack or a rock opera than a conventional album. Listeners will already be aware of the album's most contentious track, 'Unsustainable,' with its controversial dubstep elements but aside from such avenues of experimentation, Muse are still lacking a big hit from 2nd Law, such as they had with 'Plug In Baby.' There's potential for these songs to sound huge in the live arena but on record, this particularly collection of tracks is unfulfilling."Sprawling, bombastic and overflowing with ideas, yet somehow lacking something that's impossible to place."
Mumford & Sons return with a highly anticipated second album. Their debut release, Sigh No More saw the band's momentum grow at alarming speed and they have become a cornerstone for the nu-folk movement of British artists. Their second release, Babel is pretty much more of what you'd expect from Mumford & Sons. They've gone for the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' approach to songwriting and stuck to their distinctive sound that has stood them in such good stead up until now."Many of the songs here build to barnstorming choruses, and while Mumford has flashes of anger to vent ('Broken Crown'), his vocal delivery has a warmth and tenderness that seeps into every crevice of the record. With no shortage of memorable songs, catchy melodies, and reasons to buy a banjo, Babel succeeds on pretty much every level." We also have a new video from Mumford & Sons: 'I Will Wait' shows the band performing in front of a huge crowd As the crowd hold lighters in the air whilst the band play on, it's an atmospheric and moving representation of their live shows.
Continue reading: A Week In Music Featuring: Muse, Mumford & Sons, Alpines, Miguel, Of Monsters And Men, Alt-J And Much More!
Of Monsters And Men, Video Interview
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Of Monsters and Men, My Head Is An Animal Album Review
By Hayley Fox in Music Reviews on 28 August 2012
Of Monsters and Men is an Icelandic collective with a hushed indie-folk tone, not to be confused with 'Of Mice and Men', the Californian 'metalcore' act, though the animals in the names would fit better to their genres if they were swapped around so there'd be timid mice for the folk act and heavyweight monsters for the metal act. But there's irony for you.