Of Monsters and Men – Little Talks
2012 · Directed by WeWereMonkeys (Mihai Wilson)
2.5M Likes
Best comments
1.“This is one of those songs most people have heard in their life, but never knew the name of.”
More comments
- 2.“This song makes me want to curl my mustache, wear a flannel shirt and suspenders, smoke a pipe, quit my job and become an artisanal cheesemaker.”
- 3.“2012: Nice song. 2016: Oh, I didn't know this song was actually really tragic. 2020: I'm feeling so nostalgic for this song. 2026: $25 burger with $8 truffle Parmesan fries theme song.”
The story
Of Monsters and Men are six Icelanders who won a local battle of the bands in 2010 and landed a deal with Universal. Little Talks was the first thing most of the world heard from them, and it went huge: number one in Ireland and Iceland, number 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 (their first top 20 hit) and seven times platinum in the US.
Under all that stomp-and-holler bounce, it's a sad song. Singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir has said it's about two people who love each other but talk past each other, with a hint that one of them is gone for good. The spark was an old house she moved into. Party on the outside, ghost story on the inside.
The video, by WeWereMonkeys with Mihai Wilson directing, goes full storybook fantasy. The five guys in the band play sky-sailors who find a crystal meteor falling through the air. Inside is a lost mythical creature, played by Nanna. They carry her through one strange world after another, past a two-headed bird, another beast and a sea monster, and she's the one who beats them all before rejoining her people in the sky. The band was shot on greenscreen and dropped into CGI winterlands that Wired compared to Tim Burton and Henry Selick. It picked up an MTV VMA nomination for Best Art Direction and a 2013 Juno nod for Video of the Year.
