Of Monsters And Men My Head Is An Animal Vinyl 2LP
 
Of Monsters and Men is an amiable group of day dreamers who craft folkie pop songs.
 
But last year, the normally mild-mannered six pack transformed into total rock stars after stomping out their competition during Musiktilraunir, a yearly battle of the bands in their native Iceland.
 
With the group's bright, trumpeting single "Little Talks" winning over one blog at a time, Nanna and her bandmates are well on their way to becoming citizens of the world. Their rapid rise transpired in just one year. Nanna, who began as the acoustic act Songbird, recruited extra hands to bolster her sound for a solo show.
 
She liked how her vocals commingled with Raggi's, so they started writing songs together and in 2010 morphed into Of Monsters and Men. As victors of 2010's Musiktilraunir, the new group earned a slot on the influential Iceland Airwaves festival later that year, followed by Seattle's radio station KEXP posting "Little Talks" from a Living Room Session filmed there, setting the telltale ripple effect in motion.
 
Though their reach is growing broader, the group's appeal has remained distinct: Their music is as fantastical as it is pretty. For inspiration, they often reference random stories they've read. The chanting, tribal "Six Weeks" was inspired by the true talke of American frontiersman Hugh Glass, seemingly left for dead after 86ing a bear that attacked him. As for the swelling, epic "From Finner?"
 
"It's about a whale that has a house on its back" says Raggi "On which people travel across the ocean, exploring different places and having adventures." They also dig deeper, past legends of grizzly men and whale riders.
 
"Little Talks," for instance, explores loneliness and insanity, while "Love Love Love" ruefully ruminates on heartbreak. "If you listen to the lyrics, they're not as uplifting," he says. "But our music is meant to be fun to sing along to."
 
Of Monsters And Men My Head Is An Animal Track Listing:
 
1. Dirty Paws
2. King and Lionheart
3. Mountain Sound
4. Slow and Steady
5. From Finner
6. Little Talks
7. Six Weeks
8. Love Love Love
9. Your Bones
10. Sloom
11. Lakehouse
12. Yellow Light