Would Alice Cooper display his work in tailored tweed? Come on.
But whatever people may say, you wouldn’t expect Mumford to dress any other way.
Just ask the suits at Grammy. People do, however, question if the brogues and waistcoats play a finer part in the London groups success than the music. Recognition, that keeps recurring.įollowing, rather than chasing, Mumford were stepping a short few paces behind Adele to become a must-have British export after their success of 2009. Although they have been blessed with recognition for the folk jangling effort that hooked hearts worldwide in ‘Sigh No More’, ‘Babel’ quite simply, needs to be equally infectious.įive-million copies of ‘Sigh No More’ sold, and counting, ‘Babel’ has tough competition. After expanding the mantle piece to accompany their many awards, Mumford grabbed global acclaim and racked up a festival fever that showcased fluent banjo bliss and propelled the indie-folk quartet to deserved recognition. This tale of a farmer at rock-bottom, whose days are as barren as his fields, strikes a disarming chord, with piano lines that tumble softly into earnest banjo riffs and bluesy slide guitar.ĭeceptively dainty, ’White Blank Page’ is a technically complex delight, darting down melodic trapdoors and swaying in and out of mighty crescendos like a sailboat in a storm.Babel – Playing it safe, or giving the fans what they want?Īs fine a modern folk band they are, Mumford & Sons are no exception to the controversial slaps that tend to hit a band when returning with album No2. Forget the folk frippery: once that squealing solo comes in, M&S sound like a band excited to sound new again. Our first taste of ‘Wilder Mind’, ‘Believe’ is an ambient gem, moping along through starry guitars and twinkling pulses like a downtrodden hitch-hiker on the highway. Manic fingerpicking, creepy reverb and a distant wash of distortion elevate this bleak hymn from the tail-end of ‘Babel’ above its ham-fisted neighbours. This dusky, pulsing track drops any pretence at old-style Americana and shoots instead for a lick of the Kings of Leon fire.Īn anthem for sin-plagued folkies everywhere, this is a darker cut from ‘Babel’, but one that swells up into a finale of Biblical proportions. In the eyes of folk purists, the songs we’ve heard from ‘Wilder Mind’ are a welcome sign that M&S have led their one trick pony from the barnyard out to the firing squad. Perhaps the finest example of Mumford & Sons being Mumford & Sons, ‘Winter Winds’ opens its lungs and blows a gale of softly triumphant horns that celebrate the inevitability of renewal. Partly written as a tribute to Shakespeare’s ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, this M&S staple builds to a pretty finale that conjures an army of strings and horns to fend off romantic cynicism: “Love, it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you/ It will set you free.” It’s not the band’s subtlest moment, but then, when was the last time a subtle moment made you hug sticky, unshowered strangers in a field?Īn overlooked anthem from ‘Sigh no More’, ‘Thistles and Weeds’ dangles its resolution from minor-key purgatory just out of reach, right up until a crescendo so thunderous it leaves a dent in your ear canals. If you’ve been within 15 miles of a major UK festival recently, you’ve probably heard the deafening sound of 20,000 Mumford-ites hopped up on cider bellowing this into their mates’ faces.
‘Awake My Soul’ is all hushed tones and gentle swells – perfect for those days when you’re sharing a mutual hatred with the world and everything it contains. This feisty ‘Babel’ single jigs a path through heartbreak all the way into euphoria, bursting its lungs with a rapturous rallying cry to the lovelorn and glum: “Let’s live while we are young”. Luckily, as any festival-going fule knows, once those familiar banjos stir, they don’t look back. M&S cram so many tantalising build-ups into ‘Little Lion Man’ it’s a wonder there’s room for a song at all. Stomping straight into your heart, the title track of M&S’s second record jangles, pounds and crashes into a stirring climax, sounding like a fedora-clad orchestra plummeting from the clouds. This unashamed embrace of big-screen pop came with a video starring Idris Elba himself, ensuring that these gentlemen of folk could be mistaken for sparkle-eyed pretenders no more.
If ‘The Cave’ exemplifies the kind of cloying fiddlery that turned critics against Mumford & Sons, it’s also an undeniable anthem and catalyst of the waistcoat-folk revival.
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