4:38
My Head Is An Animal, 2011
Written by Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson
This indie-pop song, with orchestral baroque guitar and organ, describes a dream-like war declared on birds by bees, but won through alliance with furry, dirty-pawed beasts. It's a precious folk-rock anthem with lots of "hey!"s and "la"s. The arrangement builds steadily, adding percussion flourishes and overlapping vocal harmonies until it swells into something grand and slightly chaotic, then lingers longer than it perhaps needs to. Musically, it sits in that turn of the millennium indie-pop lineage where Arcade Fire and The Decemberists blurred earnest storytelling with flamboyant instrumentation: part chamber ensemble, part basement singalong. What makes this song endure, I think, is a certain wide-eyed innocence, even in its over-twee imagery, that speaks to a certain strain of indie culture: a rejection of cynicism, an embrace of play-acting, and a love of communal energy, until even an old jaded grump like me can concede that the silliest conceits can become rallying cries when shouted together in harmony.
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