Words by

Haukur S. Magnússon

@haukursm

Photo by

Meredith Truax

Of Monsters and Men, everyone’s favourite Icelandic band that isn’t Sigur Rós, have just dropped a brand spanking new track, Crystals, along with announcing a release date, title and tracklist for their highly anticipated sophomore effort. After a couple of listens, it feels safe to declare that fans of the band will not be disappointed – firmly avoiding those classic second-album-that-follows-up-an-insanely-successful-début tropes, Crystals confirms that OMAM have not ‘gone weird’, nor started sounding like Arcade Fire. Have a listen for yourself:

Doesn’t this just sound tailor made to soundtrack some of your life’s most meaningful moments and/or trailers for life-affirming movies that feature one or more people running towards something and then there’s a shot of someone crying, cut to a shot of some folks laughing and hugging, pan out to an expansive, beautiful landscape shot and maybe some waterfalls, and then the narrator announces the title in that pleasant baritone you’ve grown to love? It does!

Also, it’s really cool that they got the one and only Siggi Sigurjóns, one of Iceland’s most beloved comedy actors, to recite the lyrics in the above lyric video.

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Of Monsters and Men’s new album is titled Beneath The Skin, and was produced by the band and Rich Costey (Muse, Death Cab for Cutie, Foster the People, Interpol). It was recorded in Iceland and Los Angeles over the past year, and the cover looks like this:

Here’s the tracklist:

• Crystals
• Human
• Hunger
• Wolves Without Teeth
• Empire
• Slow Life
• Organs
• Black Water
• Thousand Eyes
• I Of The Storm
• We Sink

And guess what! The Icelandic version features two extra tracks! These tracks:

• Backyard
• Winter Sound

The band is about to embark upon an extensive world tour, which will certainly see their legion of fans whoa-oaing along with Crystals expansive chorus. The first show will take place on May 4 in Toronto, Canada, at Massey Hall.

PS: their début album sold TWO MILLION COPIES. TWO MILLION COPIES. That is a lot of copies.

PPS: Want more OMAM-hijinx? Here are some on-line places to quench your OMAM thirst:

Here they are on Facebook

Here they are on Twitter.com 

Here they are on Instagram 

Here they are on VEVO (what’s the difference between a YouTube and a VEVO btw?) 

Here they are on YouTube