Today in Band Pictures That Rather Kill the Mood…
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[4.20]
Iain Mew: With the number of new singers around who sound all round like Ellie Goulding, there was a ready-made alternative route for Of Monsters and Men and Nanna Hilmarsdóttir. The closest they get is the fragile bridge, which sounds more like the xx. The rest of the song pursues solid and reliable at the expense of much else.
[5]
Juana Giaimo: Every month there is a new folky song telling us to be stronger and move forward, and though I’m starting to get quite tired of them, “Crystals” called my attention. The images of the lyrics are strong; take the fears in a line like “raw and charcoal-coloured thighs feel so cold, and my skin feels so paper-thin” contrasted with the sweet “let your colours bleed and blend with mine” (while playing at the same time with a negative connotation because of “bleed”). But these images are also reflected in the dynamics of the song. On the verses, when the lyrics explore the darkness, Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir’s voice is lonely, but in the chorus she is suddenly joined by her whole band, a real support to her vocals.
[7]
Alfred Soto: An awful lot of echo, innit, for a title conceit wrapped around the usual tension and release.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: They were so eager to make a chorus they forgot about making a song. It’s just a hook. Just a build and another fucking meatheaded meathook.
[2]
Thomas Inskeep: This is some designed-for-maximum-festival-singalong-impact bullshit, which also means it’s a Triple-A radio wet dream, which furthermore means it’s my worst nightmare. It’s “earnest” and “serious” and strummy and KILL ME NOW.
[0]
Katherine St Asaph: Of Monsters and Men go hard on the militaristically rustic percussion, the pastoral monster howls and homespun metaphors of men and women as transcendental semi-sexual dye trickles into each other, because at some innate or learned level (probably during preschool) they’re inherently rousing for lots of people. Yet almost every critic I know seems weirdly resistant. Must mean some groupthink’s happening. But even if you accept the musical premise as-is, “Crystals” would clearly be the point in the set you wander off for a birch tea.
[4]
Anthony Easton: If there is something commendable about an artist who has committed to a sound long after it has become fashionable, and there is something sad about someone who is at a party a little too late, what is the middle ground between those two spaces? Does the middle ground change when you are vexed by the genre?
[5]
Brad Shoup: Even by my geologic standards, it took a while for “Mountain Sound” to reveal itself as a jam. I’m pretty confident that in a few months this will still sound like Lone Justice going post-rock.
[5]
Patrick St. Michel: I’ve grown more tolerant of this sort of music, because I know where it excels (at a music festival, or at least at a gathering in a field of some sort) and is aimed at making a big blob of people “feel something” in the vaguest way possible. It does its job well, regardless of how labored Of Monsters and Men’s adjective game gets, and as far as bands using Arcade Fire’s first album as a blueprint goes, this is alright.
[5]
Scott Mildenhall: That’s a movie-trailer opening, but the trailer doesn’t get any further than the establishing shots. If this were to glide and swoop and make grander gestures, it might have more to grasp at, but as is it’s only “intrigued by Center Parcs advert”, not “paragliding down a mountain”.
[5]