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Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album)

album by Of Monsters and Men

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ19824588 ↗
Source-derived summary

Beneath the Skin is the second studio album by Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men. It was released on 8 June 2015 in Iceland, and a day later in the rest of the world.

The album artwork and design was created by artistic director Leif Podhajsky. It debuted at number three on US Billboard 200, and sold 61,000 copies in its first week, becoming the band's highest-charting album in the country.

The album title is derived from a lyric in the song "Human": "Plants awoke and they slowly grow beneath the skin."

The album was nominated for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards.

Reception

Critical reception

Beneath the Skin received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 63, based on 15 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Madison Vain of Entertainment Weekly stated, "Lyrics brim with woodsy imagery, and the sweet vocals elevate these campfire tunes into something extravagant.

Commercial performance

On the chart dated 27 June 2015, Beneath the Skin debuted at number 3 on the US Billboard 200 chart with 61,000 copies in the first week of its release (including 57,000 pure album sales), becoming the highest-charting album by the band there. Its first-week sales made it the best sales week of the band.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album)” as album by Of Monsters and Men. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2015—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2015. The account is most persuasive where Beneath, Skin and Monsters can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Of Monsters and Men. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19824588. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2015.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album) primary sources, Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album) archive and Beneath research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Beneath the Skin (Of Monsters and Men album)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.