Album: single release only (2020)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This brooding alt-rock anthem is a song about disconnection and being on the fringe of change. Although it was written and recorded when the world was a completely different place, the lyrics are eerily on point for the COVID-19 era.

    You need to wake up
    I can't have you disappear
    Just like my parents' house
    I've become a visitor


    Co-lead vocalist and guitarist Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir explained to American Songwriter that as everything you once knew disappears, you find yourself in the role of the visitor. "It's about how we all 'change rooms' in our lives," she said. "There's the part in the chorus about becoming a visitor at your parents' house, which is something that most of us, we have that transition. The overall feeling of the song is just this new role that you have to kind of come to terms with it, but also just this disconnection that you feel to people or circumstances; this isolation."
  • Icelandic filmmaker Thora Hilmars directed the music video in early February 2020, before the pandemic started spreading worldwide. The clip shows beautiful but post-apocalyptic scenes of the band's home country as they perform the song at night in an icy airplane hangar. Of Monsters and Men also worked with Hilmars on the visual for "Wild Roses."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Ian Gillan of Deep Purple

Ian Gillan of Deep PurpleSongwriter Interviews

Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan explains the "few red lights" in "Smoke On The Water" and talks about songs from their 2020 album Whoosh!

Intentionally Atrocious

Intentionally AtrociousSong Writing

A selection of songs made to be terrible - some clearly achieved that goal.

Chris Tomlin

Chris TomlinSongwriter Interviews

The king of Christian worship music explains talks about writing songs for troubled times.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda PalmerSongwriter Interviews

Call us crazy, but we like it when an artist comes around who doesn't mesh with the status quo.

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Song Titles That Inspired Movies

Song Titles That Inspired MoviesSong Writing

Famous songs that lent their titles - and in some cases storylines - to movies.