Description
Nanna – How to Start a Garden – Double Vinyl Record
Nanna’s How to Start a Garden, released on May 5, 2023, is a gorgeously introspective and quietly powerful debut solo album from Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir, best known as the lead vocalist of the Icelandic indie folk band Of Monsters and Men. While her band’s work is often expansive and anthemic, How to Start a Garden takes a more intimate and contemplative direction, weaving together elements of dream pop, indie rock, folk, and ambient textures to explore personal growth, healing, and emotional rebirth.
The album’s title is a poetic metaphor for starting over, suggesting both fragility and resilience. Written largely during the pandemic—a time of global stillness and personal reflection—the record feels like a private journal turned soundscape, full of softly unfolding melodies, layered synths, hushed vocals, and lyrics that often wrestle with grief, solitude, and the slow work of rebuilding.
The opening track, “Godzilla,” sets the emotional tone: a haunting, slow-building piece that juxtaposes quiet vulnerability with a sense of looming inner turmoil. Throughout the album, Nanna masterfully balances softness and strength. Songs like “Crybaby,” “Disaster Master,” and “Sputnik” lean into a melancholy, ethereal beauty, with minimal arrangements that give her voice space to carry emotional weight. Her vocals—delicate, yet grounded—are laced with a Scandinavian coolness that recalls artists like Lykke Li, Daughter, or Agnes Obel.
While the album is not overtly narrative, there’s a clear emotional arc running through it, moving from numbness and confusion to gentle acceptance and quiet hope. The title track, “How to Start a Garden,” feels like the album’s spiritual center—a tender meditation on vulnerability, change, and the slow, patient process of regrowth. “I am learning how to start a garden,” she sings, as both a literal and metaphorical gesture.
Production-wise, How to Start a Garden is understated yet immersive. Its use of reverb, ambient sound beds, and restrained instrumentation creates a feeling of spaciousness—like being inside a memory. The songs are less about dramatic climaxes and more about atmosphere, texture, and emotional suggestion.
T
he album was praised for its emotional honesty, sonic restraint, and atmospheric depth. It may lack the immediate hooks of Of Monsters and Men’s radio singles, but it rewards listeners who are looking for something more introspective, slow-burning, and emotionally layered. It’s a record that whispers rather than shouts, and in doing so, makes a lasting impression.
In essence, How to Start a Garden is a deeply personal, quietly transformative record about starting over—about finding beauty in stillness and strength in vulnerability. It’s a space for reflection, healing, and gentle growth, and a stunning showcase of Nanna as a solo artist with her own distinct voice.
Brand new, never played and still in the factory plastic sealed
Track Listing
How To Start A Garden
Sputnik
Crybaby
Disaster Master
The Vine
Godzilla
Bloodclot/Andvaka
Milk
Igloo
Voyager
Seabed
