Of Monsters And Men

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. 

The suspected whimsical air about the film suggests that the gentle soundtrack would accompany the various reveries Mitty travels through well and as a collection of songs there is a likeness throughout the album as one track drifts to the next. The quieted tone lasts throughout the album, diverting only briefly and only slightly when the pace quickens. These diversions come along frequently enough to prevent the temperance of the album from becoming tiresome and, as a stand-alone album, the quality of songs hold relatively strong for the full fifty minutes.

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

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 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.

Continue reading: Of Monsters and Men, My Head Is An Animal Album Review