Of Monsters and Men - Fever Dream

If you were expecting the first album in four years from Icelandic folk-pop connoisseurs Of Monsters and Men to be a continuation of their dual-harmony kitsch, you’ll be duly disappointed. The chirpy campfire indie-folk of 2011 debut ‘My Head Is An Animal’ and the murky depths of 2015’s ‘Beneath The Skin’ have been disregarded for a squeaky clean indie-pop sponge bath that soaks the colour of love into your eardrums.

‘Fever Dream’ is an indie-pop colour-by-numbers, with the warping, fuzzed-up distortion and ever-so-funky basslines of opener ‘Alligator’ acting as a blueprint for the albums 11 tracks. Early birds ‘Ahay’ and ‘Rororo’ are folk-laden red herrings, bursting into kaleidoscopic variations of blessed-out pop we've come to expect from ex-folk luminaries.

Much like the time Mumford & Sons ditched their banjos for electric guitars, Of Monsters and Men put away their guitars and wrote the majority of the record on a computer. The synthetic inspiration lends ‘Fever Dream’ a certain polish - if they were going to go full-on pop, they were going to bring their A-game. Co-vocalist Nanna Bryndis Hilmarsdottir steals the spotlight from Ragnar Porhallsson throughout the record, opting to employ him sporadically to dramatic effect. It’s a brave departure which leaves the record lacking the very thing that set them up apart from other folk troupes.