All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade

“All Is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade”. It may sound a little strange, but the title and beating heart of Icelandic indie-folk collective Of Monsters and Men’s fourth album hits a lot closer to home than you’d expect. A tapestry of stories, moments, and conversations, the album explores how love and pain intertwine. Feelings that might seem at odds with each other, but co-exist simultaneously and need one another. Tales both big and small — from the loneliness and longing of living in a block surrounded by strangers, to missed connections in a grocery store, to the lives and losses of a community of mice in a vacant house during winter.

Of Monsters and Men went from Reykjavík to the global stage with their breakout 2011 debut My Head Is An Animal, which propelled them from Icelandic indie darlings to international chart-toppers. The album’s breakout single “Little Talks,” a defining song for a generation, now boasts over 1 billion Spotify streams.

Amid their meteoric rise, the band released their sophomore album Beneath The Skin in 2015, which debuted in the Top 3 of the Billboard 200 and was accompanied by a surprise cameo on HBO’s huge hit series Game of Thrones. Their cinematic sound has popped up everywhere from The Hunger Games to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, while their festival appearances — Coachella, Glastonbury, Lollapalooza, and more

Over a decade in, the band have gone from folk-tinged newcomers to digital-era mainstays, with 9 million monthly listeners on Spotify and a new generation discovering that Iceland’s beauty extends beyond fjords and thermal baths.