I have been eagerly waiting for Mumford & Sons to jump across the pond to grace us with a live folktale spectre, but alas they’ve made it as east as Toronto in Canada, and then full stop. I’ve had to settle for a copy of Sigh No More, released four months later than its European debut. And as Velveeta as the adage spreads, the wait was worth it. The London quartet spawned from the backyard of Noah and the Whale, and darling Laura Marling, and is on a logarithmic rise to dominate the folk-rock genre. The brotherhood of Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett, and Ted Dwane doesn’t travel lightly either; their trunks pack a guitar, drums, a mandolin, a banjo, a Dobro, black & whites, an organ, and a “petite” double bass. Aside from the stellar songwriting, it’s the wicked harmonies these four blokes can collage that propel their triumphs. Turn it up from a liberating Sigh No More with a tugging double bass, onto a whirlwind porch jam in Roll Away Your Stone, a frank stomp of the Little Lion Man, and dust it off to the heavier sounds of righteous anger in Dustbowl Dance. And the latter is what separates them from the vein of Fleet Foxes and the like; Mumford & Sons’ verse can also turn into a livid rant, cross with ramifications. The eloquence of their prose as a whole speaks to the soul, unvarnished and emotive, more often focusing on an object of affection. The heart and mind battle it out, and tracks Awake My Soul and The Cave leave me gobsmacked. “And where you invest your love, You invest your life”; Mumford & Sons will remind you of just that.
Key Tracks: The Cave, Awake My Soul, Little Lion Man
Moods: Organic, Uplifting, Gentle, Poignant, Yearning, Cathartic
Buy: Sigh No More
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