Mumford & Sons already had a certain amount of popularity in their native England, as well as the rest of the British Isles, Australia, and New Zealand, before their full-length debut, Sigh No More, came out in the US, courtesy of Glassnote Records. And it is, upon first listen, easy to see why. Pulling very directly from their influences – Fairport Convention, The Strawbs, and, most contemporarily, The Frames – Mumford & Sons write overwrought but inarguably catchy songs that shift between rollicking banjos, and four-part harmonies, and the less-produced pieces focusing more on Marcus Mumford’s (unfortunately, the other members are not his actual sons) pained vocals.
Actually, to be fair, Mumford has a great voice – clear and expressive with a bit of growl when necessary – and the songs in which its timbre is strong but not dominant (“Dust Bowl Dance,” “Thistle & Weeds”) are among the better. However, too often is the quality of the music obscured by the drama of the emotion. Mumford overwrites his lyrics (“As the winter winds litter London with lonely hearts,” from “Winter Winds”); even so, they feel like platitudes about love and loss and etc etc etc (“heart,” for example, is sung emphatically in nearly every song) and stated because they seem representatively correct of these things, and not because they actually are. This is not a lighthearted band, despite the occasional trumpet or softly finger-picked guitar or the cheerful fiddle; however, the weight of the songs feels forced rather than necessary. Because there are certainly good things going on here: the songwriting itself is solid (“Little Lion Man,” their big UK radio single, in indeed very catchy), and the players, though not doing anything groundbreaking, are more than adequate at their respective posts. When they open up, focusing less on the impact of each word and more on the capacity of the music, the possibility of what they could do is apparent. It’s just when they try too hard to make a point do we feel like we’ve heard it all before.
Leave A Comment!