(Muso's Guide, March 26, 2009)
Single reviews
Perhaps best-known for being in the top 15 for the BBC’s Sound Of 2009 abomination (eventual winner: Little Boots), Mumford & Sons are second place to no one. And certainly not 15th place.
Singer Marcus Mumford has been known to moonlight on drums for Laura Marling, which should give an indication of the sort of thing on offer. To whit, ‘The Cave’ - a sweetly finger-picked ditty with a delicious taste of gentle acoustopop. Then the vocal - a straightforward, full-vowelled English accent with heart. It’s unexpected in this sort of Americana-tinged folk, but delightfully welcome.
A minute in, a bassline comes in, but the beefier sound does nothing to deplete the loveliness. Percussion and backing vocals go some way to making the sound complete, but the star is that great strong voice - part-Guy Garvey - for sheer bass meat - and part something altogether more refined. The lyric is very personal - “I need freedom now/I need to live my life as it’s meant to be” he asserts, all the while tremendously atmospheric backing underpinned by a skilled banjo.
The Frightened Rabbit-vein of soulful vocal-meets-folk backing is richly ploughed here, but the unique marriage of banjo and that low Mumford voice put ‘The Cave’ on another level. ‘But My Heart Told My Head’ is, if anything, more striking than ‘The Cave’.
A warm, comforting, densely musical intro soon drops off, leaving that signature banjo backing Mumford’s luscious tones, “As the winter winds litter London with lonely hearts” he begins, like an old-school fairy tale.
The vocal here is strained and emotional, but the words keep on giving, thrusting romantic images and standards into the listener’s mind. “Oh, for every kiss your beauty trumped my doubt” Mumford tells it, although this is no happy ending - he follows that with a nod to the song’s theme of heartbreak, the repeated lyric, “And my head told my heart let love grow/And my heart told my head this time now/This time no”.
The decision to surrender oneself to love is too much for Mumford, and the brass building up in the mix is a Christmas carol, a colossal great mix of hope and haunting. By the strength of these songs, Mumford & Sons have something incredibly special. The crushing simplicity of their music stays with the listener long after the record has finished, while the lyrical themes put everyday feelings into poetry.
A surefire family favourite.
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