Realisation that a new Of Monsters and Men song is coming next week prompted me to look up several Icelandic artists I haven’t heard about for a while, one of them being Soffía (Björg).
Time moves slowly in Iceland. In OMAM’s case it is over five years since their last release and in Soffía’s case four since her second album in English although she has been releasing material in Icelandic and even engaging in duets with someone called Sigga Kling if I read her social pages correctly.
I missed her most recent single, ‘Redwing’, back in April but I’ll make an exception to the NMC one-month rule because it is so tasty.
While some things change, others remain the same and that’s the case with Soffía and the virtuoso Pétur Ben, with whom she has been working for many years and who is producing her new album.
The way I remember Soffía, pretty much since the first time I came across her, is as a writer of hard hitting folk-rock songs, occasionally ballads, that chronicled the life of her younger self, with an undercurrent of edginess, numerous visits to downtown bars, and even hints at violence in one or two songs – and with her not as the victim! – and some shared worries about not being able to land the man of her dreams, out there on the farm in rural Borgarnes.
Perhaps she found that love because ‘Redwing’ is a lighter, much gentler song as she reinvents herself as an exponent of ‘alternative country’ – a direction that I believed she had started to go in on the last album, ‘The company you keep’. The angst has gone.
And it isn’t just that mellowness or the fact that she sounds at such ease with herself that suggests she’s found lasting lurve.
For the benefit of the uninitiated (and I was one) a redwing is small bird of the thrush genus that inhabits Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and is evident not only by its red colour but also a white line above the eye which looks like it didn’t put on its war paint properly.
It particularly likes Iceland and tends to cluster where there are trees, which makes it difficult in Iceland because there aren’t many. Tree huggers are in a distinct minority there.
But here’s the thing. While most redwings fly south for the winter, some hang on and stick it out (and believe me you have to be hard in the Icelandic winter).
I’ll take a punt and venture that is what the song is about – that Soffía has found someone who will tough out the ups and downs of relationships, hang loose and keep on smiling.
Whoever they are (correct pronouns now, this is 2025) they probably inhabit Reykjavik (“You’re in the city, where the lights are a-shining”) but she’s hesitant to write the love letter she craves to them despite the vocal expression of her undying love. For reasons we can only guess at.
The Pétur Ben effect is noticeable in the production, especially the multi-tracking of her voice towards the end. It ensures a degree of panache a little beyond what she has previously achieved, as if the wider European market is the target now, rather than the more parochial Icelandic one.
And that is where she deserves to be. She is a very accomplished artist that has earned much more in the way of international exposure.
Give this song a few spins, it is quite beautiful.
And I salute her for singing a song in which I heard every single word. I can’t remember the last time, by anyone.
We are promised a third album, one which is a mix of soft love songs, “sassy Soffía songs” and some humour in between.
Oh, and I see she has acquired a smart Fedora to go with her fabulous selection of boots. She is quite the style icon.
Find her on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoffiaOfficialMusic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soffiaofficialmusic/
