A triumphant return – Of Monsters and Men knows how to deliver.

All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade is the fourth studio venture from Of Monsters and Men, taking the listener on what feels like a trip back to the simpler times of our collective youth. With a six year gap since their last full length album, the band has seemed to make it definitely worth the wait, introducing a new sense of maturity and introspection into their discography. When listening to this project, there is a refreshing yet familiar sense of somber nostalgia that this album is able to evoke. With impactful writing, memorable hooks and stellar instrumentation, this record brings back the same hopeful melancholy that the band has brought since their breakout.

With this record, the band has been able to eloquently shift between emotional highs and lows, with songs like “Barefoot in the Snow” feeling like a melancholy look at the weight of the world around you, while “Dream Team” feels like a hopeful gaze into the future. The opening track, “Television Love,”  hooks you in with a memorable chorus and impressive harmonization, which only adds to the collective listening experience.

The band continues to showcase their range with “The Actor” feeling like a natural homecoming to the bands roots, while “Fruit bat” is a wispy 8-minute long ballad filled with heartfelt lyrics, mixed with strikingly haunting piano chords. “Kamikaze” is also a standout track that is able to effectively translate the complexities of relationships, and presents them in such a meaningful and heartfelt way – as has come to be expected from the band over the course of their 14-year career.

With the modern music landscape seemingly never slowing down, this album is able to present itself as a welcomed change of pace, a moment to slow down and reflect. When listening, it feels hard not to feel emotionally impacted by the honesty and vulnerability that is evoked with this project. Monsters and Men are welcoming you into their world with a warm embrace, making an album that feels both like a trip back to their roots and a breath of fresh air.

When listening to this album, you are reintroduced to the feeling that the band evoked at its inception, now through a more mature and introspective lens. All is Love and Pain in the Mouse Parade seems like a moment of self-reflection for the band, who have shown us that they are by no means stopping anytime soon. We are just lucky to be there for the ride.