Bob's Music Review

Mumford and Sons: "Sigh No More"

Mumford and Sons is a four piece London-based band consisting of Marcus Mumford (guitar, vocals, drums, mandolin), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, accordion, drums), Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, dobro), and Ted Dwane (vocals, string bass, drums).

At the time of this writing, Mumford and Sons’ album “Sigh No More” has been the number one most downloaded album on iTunes for over a week, coming out ahead of Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa. What is more strange is that “Sigh No More” was released over a year ago and sounds vaguely reminiscent of old Irish folk. So why is it suddenly getting attention?

Mumford and Sons performed at the 2011 Grammy Awards, playing alongside another blossoming band known as the Avett Brothers, and Bob Dylan. Mumford and Sons suddenly found themselves performing in front of millions of people for the first time in their newly developing career.

What did the producers of the Grammy Awards hear in this band’s music that led them to give them a chance to perform for an international audience? I have no clue, but there are plenty of good reasons anyone with an interest should check these guys out.

“Sigh No More” is rather unique in how it came to be. Mumford and Sons had crafted the majority of the songs that would make up the album in the preceding two years before the album was released. Facing no pressure to meet the expectations of any fans, critics, or record companies, the band personally financed the recording and production of “Sigh No More”. Having the creative freedom to develop the songs independently carried an interesting twist: the resulting album sounds like Marcus Mumford’s personal struggle to find freedom within himself.

Mumford’s vocals carry a grainy, whiskey-soaked tonality that invokes imagery of a determined sailor calling out to his shipmates to stand strong and face down the oncoming turbulent storm. In many ways, this may be close to what Mumford is trying to express; the song “The Cave” reveals Mumford’s internal Iliad and Odyssey with the lyrics “Tie me to a post and block my ears -I can see the widows and orphans through my tears – I know my call despite my faults and despite my growing fears”.

“Little Lion Man” finds Mumford toying with the psyche of a man riddled with shame and disappointment. He speaks of trying to redeem oneself by crawling out of a self-inflicted psychological deficit by taking “all the courage you have left and wasting it on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head”. The gravity of the song is amplified by an ambient disbursement of loosely distorted guitar slides and a heart-thumping “four to the floor” kick drum rhythm.

Besides the aforementioned singles that have become very popular, there are many more gems on “Sigh No More” that carry the same raw intensity, urgency, and innocence of someone trying to come to grips with reality. “Winter Winds” reverses the decision-making capacity of the mind and the emotional desires of the heart by concluding “my head told my heart ‘let love grow’ – but my heart told my head ‘this time no’”. Amid the swells of horns and percussion, the song reminds the listener that life is cyclical and situations sometimes resolve themselves by switching places as Mumford offers advice: “If strife strikes at your sleep, remember spring swaps snow for leaves – You’ll be happy and wholesome again when the city clears and sun ascends”.

By addressing the skeletons in the closet and accepting them as the blemishes on the conscience that they are – rather than deny or minimalize their existence – one may rest with quiet assurance that we are not defined by our faults. Mumford’s struggle to find freedom and worth within himself, as it turns out, was not found in trying to make himself better but in accepting the limitations of his existence. In the final and angelic chorus of “Roll Away Your Stone” Mumford provides a glimpse of his new-found freedom – “And so I’ll be found with my stake stuck in this ground – marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul”.

Mumford and Sons gave me a surprise: I went in expecting to hear a folk album and I came away with my own newly impassioned soul. Maybe that’s why Mumford and Sons is getting attention: not because they are simply providing another pop music commodity with little substance but because they are providing an idea of finding freedom from within.

Mumford and Sons’ “Sigh No More” gets five stars from me.Check them out and feel free to comment.

Noteworthy Songs:

• Sigh No More
• The Cave
• Winter Winds
• Roll Away Your Stone
• Little Lion Man
• Timshel
• Awake My Soul