folk Mumford & Sons - Page 2

their best song is by far winter winds for me.

Jesus Christ on a tricycle Liar is an amazing song.

These guys have just led to an impulse banjo buy. Well, they would have if I actually had some money, but the next thing I'm buying is a banjo. Seriously.

Mumford & Sons will likely be my favorite band for a long time to come. And I did the impulse banjo buy, Arcaida. A good investment it surely was.



I suggest everyone who likes this band go on YouTube and search for two things. One, search for the Bookshop Sessions and check out the three songs that they did acoustic. Two, search for their 9-part Rockfeedback performance. Both are absolutely amazing. They execute their music so perfectly it's like listening to a new, recorded studio album version every time they play a song.

It's a fun instrument but I'm struggling so much with the finger picks. I wish that specific element was easier to pick up on because it's really starting to piss me off. But I digress...

I'd like to also bring up the fact that, as much as I don't want to express any type of disappointment with the new album, I have to admit that I like some of the EP versions of the songs much better. The version of Little Lion Man on Love Your Ground was just way better. I don't like how they had to add all these dark, ambient string noises and shit.. it just clogs up the beauty of how simple the music was to begin with.

Every time I listen to Little Lion Man on Sigh No More I wish it was the Love Your Ground version. They even cut out the tamborine which significantly contributed to the momentum gaining at the end of the song to me. They also butchered Awake My Soul on the new album, but whatever.

Oh, and I thought The Banjolin Song was a sure-bet for the album too. Apparently not.

Alright, rant over. I still love them.

quote Fleet Fox

I have to admit that I like some of the EP versions of the songs much better.

I know what you mean. A number of the album versions do strike me as a little over-produced, smoothing over the raw quality that made them so endearing in the first place. The worst culprit is definitely Little Lion Man and the weird moody strings/electric guitar that was added underneath the boys' original version. But hey if that's how you get airplay on Radio 1 hats off to them. Great to see such a good bunch of guys do commercially well.

Just started listening to them as I heard Winter Winds on the radio and thought it was really good, Little Lion Man is really good too, will have to listen to more of them.
They're style of music isn't usually my thing but I like them.

Really Pitchfork? 2.1 out of 10?

quote

Mumford & Sons take an emporium approach, with an inventory that's broad but never deep. By spreading their attention around so many different trends, they aim to do many things adequately-- perhaps to distract you from an inability to do any one thing especially well. They love big moments and acoustic instruments, so you might call what they do hoedown pop, although that might be giving them too much credit: Every hoedown on Sigh No More-- every rush of instruments in rhythmic and melodic lockstep-- conveys the same sense of hollow, self-aggrandizing drama. And they pull that shit on every track.

That's literally all the review mentions about the music, the rest being a tirade of criticism against the band's lack of integrity and authenticity. Looks like you're not allowed to record a pop album enthused with country/folk sounds if you don't actually have any valid experiences of the lifestyle and god forbid you write lyrics that probably don't resonate word for word with your own life. I agree with Pitchfork on the point that musically the album is ultimately rather bland and derivative but it's certainly not the crime against music that Pitchfork is painting it as. The sad part is I don't think Pitchfork reviewers find it capable to appreciate pop music that consists of low-brow, harmless, escapist fun any more. Wasn't that half the point about the genre in the first place?

I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised nor affected by the nature of the review. But still, 2.1's a review score intended to make a point rather than a balanced opinion.