of monsters and men - my head is an animal
By Maisie Spofford
In the nearly ten years since indie Icelandic group Of Monsters and Men released their debut album My Head is an Animal, it has gained millions of streams- and for good reason. With string melodies and soothing vocals, every song on the indie-folk album is a beautiful aural landscape. But beyond that, this album transports you to a far away place, the realm of fantasy. The songs prominently feature nature, animals, and monsters; the stuff of children’s imaginations, lending to the album’s core themes of fantasy and storytelling. Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir, lead singer and guitarist of the six-piece band, revealed of the writing process that the most important thing is that people “read their own things into the lyrics,” which is why I argue that this is the perfect album for daydreaming and creating your own fantasies out of the stories woven by the lyrics .
I connect to this album personally because one of my most powerful daydreams was created in conjunction with it. At age thirteen, I discovered Of Monsters and Men and managed to stream the song ‘From Finner’ multiple times a day for weeks in a row; on the bus, in class, doing homework in my room, all the while imagining I was somewhere else. This song’s strong chorus of:
“we are far from home / but we’re so happy / far from home, all alone / but we’re so happy,”
really resonated with me, despite never quite having that experience that the lyrics spoke of. On the bus to a field trip, I played this song on repeat and looked out the window, imagining the experience of being on a journey far from home. This line sings to the independence that emerging-teenage-me longed for. I came to associate this song with longing for adventure, or a “way out” of my everyday life. I imagined seeing Of Monsters and Men perform in their home country, Iceland, and spending my days at outdoor concerts, and my nights stargazing on the roof of a caravan. For me, this entire album still speaks to the desire to travel and experience the world in a beautiful and all-consuming way. My Head is an Animal submerges you in a fantasy world that leaves you longing for more.
The title of the album My Head is an Animal comes from the second line of the first track, ‘Dirty Paws.’ Like many of the songs on the album, it begins by crafting a narrative:
“Jumping up and down the floor / my head is an animal / and once there was an animal / it had a son who mowed the lawn.”
All of the lyrics in this track are split into rhyming couplets, making it feel like a spoken poem. The spoken word element and the themes of wilderness evoke images of a campfire sing-along, with the words being improvised. Its creation feels natural, yet unplanned. These spoken rhymes over a strummed guitar melody harkens to Edwarde Sharpe and the Magnetic Zero’s hit single ‘Home’ (2009). ‘Dirty Paws’ also provides the first example of the beautiful building instrumental segments that pepper many of the songs on this album and contribute to the emotional intensity I feel when listening.
Another personal favorite from the album is ‘Mountain Sound.’ This track starts full of energy, with quick guitar strumming and a lively piano melody that mimics the melody of the refrain. The lyrics suggest this song is about not conforming with society and going to live a life in nature. The narrator of the song joins a group of wayward travellers, and the chorus sings:
“(We sleep until the sun goes down) / Through the woods, we ran / (Deep into the mountain sound)”.
Anyone who has lived in the confines of society has felt the desire to leave all material possessions and “live simply,” like American environmentalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau. As the title My Head is an Animal suggests, we are, at our core, partly animal and nature calls to us. But modern society generally suppresses that call and leaves us to channel our desires for radical adventure into daydreaming.
The most popular track from My Head is an Animal, ‘Little Talks,’ brought this album from Icelandic obscurity to global recognition. This song was their debut single which topped charts in Iceland and prompted a US record label to sign them and release My Head is an Animal in North America. The music video for ‘Little Talks’ enforces the fantasy elements of the album. Set in black and white, it portrays a blimp-like ship navigating the skies, deterred by multiple monsters which a colorful, phoenix-like woman figure defeats. In an interview, lead singer and guitarist Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir admitted that inspiration for song lyrics often came from imagined stories and situations. In the case of ‘Little Talks,’ she and her counterpart Raggi wrote about “a couple, and the husband passed away- it’s about a conversation between the two of them”. But, as mentioned before, what’s more important is that people “read their own things into the lyrics.” Through their storytelling abilities, Of Monsters and Men leave the lyrics open to interpretation and inspire the listener’s own fantasy. It is this encouragement of imagination that makes this album engaging to listen to over and over again.
While ‘Dirty Paws,’ ‘Mountain Sound,’ and ‘Little Talks’ are the heavy hitters of this album, the other tracks certainly don’t detract from its beauty. ‘Slow and Steady’ and ‘Sloom’ are less energized songs, yet still chock full of poetic nature imagery featuring forests and waterfalls. The last track on the album, ‘Yellow Light,’ features a long, soothing outro that feels like a lullaby. Yet, as relaxing as the instrumental is, the themes are still ambiguous. The verse is a conversation between a woman, who seems nervous and a man who attempts to reassure her and tell her to ignore the “big warning signs.” The outro ends with the instruments stripped down until just the piano melody is fading out a bit eerily, reminding me of my childhood wind-up music box slowly coming to a stop, ending the album on a pang of childhood nostalgia.
Perhaps My Head is an Animal could be summed up in these lines from ‘Sloom:’
“The books that I keep by my bed /
Are full of your stories /
That I drew up from a little dream of mine /
A little nightmare of yours”
Each song could be seen as a story or a little dream. But, like this lyric suggests, the fine line between dreams and nightmares isn’t black and white, like in the eerie lullaby dreamscape of ‘Yellow Light’. While this album has become a source of escapism and inspires daydreams for me, it also has a knack for evoking dissatisfaction with life as I know it and a longing for something more. I encourage you to engage with this album and explore the response it pulls out of you.