Album Review: Of Monsters and Men - 'All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade'
It has been six years since Icelandic indie-folk outfit Of Monsters and Men have released a full studio album, and the band have returned with their most introspective and sonically polished work to date.
All Is Love & Pain in the Mouse Parade, marks a quiet evolution – the band hasn’t abandoned its signature sweeping choruses and layered harmonies, but there is a new sleekness to the music, glossing over the raw edges that once made their earlier works such as cult favourite ‘Little Talks’ so arresting. However, this also allows for more nuanced, atmospheric line of storytelling.
The band balances its folk roots with more polished indie-pop touches, whilst also threading in subtle electronic texturing without straying from their sound. The result is a different kind of offering, an album that feels cohesive, deeply felt and more inward-looking.
Where earlier work felt grand and elemental, All Is Love & Pain in the Mouse Parade feels human and close.
Having drawn inspiration from the band’s personal lives and the wider community that surrounds them, singer and lyricist Nanna Hilmarsdóttir previously described their collective history as an integral part of the record, functioning as a shared narrative that shaped the album’s emotional landscape.
All Is Love & Pain in the Mouse Parade carries a quiet, ethereal calm, underpinned by solemn reflections on sadness, anxiety, and the unspoken weight of everyday emotion.
Moments of contrast break through the introspective haze in track nine, ‘Ordinary Creature,’ which serves as a turning point by lifting the album’s tempo with a sudden jolt of rhythm and energy, hinting at transformation without abandoning the overarching mood.
The title track, ‘Mouse Parade,’ on the other hand delivers the record’s most haunting moment. Unfolding slowly, it carries a deeply chilling stillness that lingers long after the final notes fade.
The result is a record that feels close and contemplative. Where earlier albums reached for more mythic and elemental themes, All Is Love & Pain in the Mouse Parade finds power in the domestic and the familiar. The production, handled by the band themselves in their native Iceland, brings an ambient warmth to the mix.
Words by Hollie Carr
