Of Monsters and Men - Fever Dream [Clear]

Fever Dream is the sound of Of Monsters and Men putting down the acoustic guitar and switching on the lights, pressed here on clear vinyl inside a gatefold jacket.

Released in 2019, the Icelandic band's third album followed Beneath the Skin and marked a deliberate change of direction. Singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir had grown tired of writing on an acoustic guitar, so she started building songs on a laptop at home, chasing something she described as poppier and brighter. The band co-produced the record with Rich Costey, keeping the huge choruses while trading some of the old folk stomp for synths and programmed beats.

Lead single Alligator began life as a dance song and still carries that restless pulse, with Nanna's voice riding an insistent, driving groove. Wild Roses, the second single, opens up a more spacious mood and lets her vocal carry the emotional weight on its own. Across the eleven tracks, from Róróró through to the closing Soothsayer, the band leans into moodier textures and a sharper electronic edge, without losing the big-hearted melodies that first won them fans.

It remains the most surprising record in their catalogue, a band choosing reinvention over repetition. With the gatefold opened up and the clear disc spinning, it makes a bright, shimmering companion to their earlier albums.