Photo by Meredith Truax

Images of mythological creatures and fanciful creations move through a sea of clouds in the music video for “Little Talks,” the chart-topping single that catapulted the Icelandic indie-pop band Of Monsters and Men into the U.S. mainstream in 2011. But with the release of their second album earlier this summer, the band draws more from the experiences from their last several years of touring than the imaginary world.

“We wanted to have it a bit more personal,” says co-lead singer and guitarist, Ragnar “Raggi” Pórhallsson about the new album Beneath the Skin. “Having toured and played the older songs for awhile, I think you just naturally have to do something else. We kept some things that were important to us, but then we just had to do something that’s new to us and that we were excited about it.”

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