Rogue Acoustic Guitar

The Irish Times - Friday, February 15, 2013

01.01.70

Icelandic folk giants Of Monsters Men erupted fully formed onto the global scene with pop gem Little Talks, but the evolution of their musical style has been much more glacier-like, singer Raggi tells JIM CARROLL  

Like all the best music stories, this one starts with a song. The current state of the pop landscape dictates that Of Monsters Men’s Little Talks was a tune destined for success.

It possessed everything you could want in a modern-day pop hit: folk bits, pop bits and a brilliantly oddball ska twist with a trumpet, as if some Kingston rudeboys went rogue and started hatching bluebeat gems in deepest Iceland.

All through last year, you heard Little Talks at every turn. It was one of the tunes on repeat at last year’s SXSW festival as Of Monsters Men seduced tastemakers under the Texan sun. Within a few months, it was never off the radio.

It was a wham-bam favourite on YouTube (46 million views and counting) and became the tune which soundtracked every festival the Icelandic band played last year – and they played a lot of them. It was – and still is – one of the most effective get-up-and-go tunes of recent times.

Source: Irish Times