As someone with a voracious appetite for new music and a preference for being ahead of the curve versus behind, it literally pains me that a band as special as Mumford and Sons escaped me for much of 2009. Gah! Don’t you just hate being left in the dark?
The London-based foursome’s brand of folk music has been recommended by a plethora of fellow music blogs throughout the year. It’s the gruff, foot stomping sound of their across-the-pond-Americana coupled with a delicate and endearing sensitivity to love, loss, and life, plain and simple, that summons comparisons to the Avett Brothers and Fleet Foxes. But, I think it might be their gorgeous harmonies that prompted me to fall deeply, deeply in love.
“Timshel,” a gospel-influenced highlight from their debut, Sigh No More, is a particularly excellent showcasing of said harmonies. Songs like this prove that music can evolve into religion with just a couple of listens. “White Blank Page” packs a similar punch. Here, lead singer, Marcus Mumford requests, “Lead me to the truth, and I will follow you with my whole life…” A relatively simple notion, but I, too, will gladly follow honesty anywhere. Luckily, this is one of Mumford and Sons’ strong suits.
Mumford and Sons – Little Lion Man
Mumford and Sons – White Blank Page
Sigh No More is now out in the U.K. and is set for U.S. release on Glassnote Records on March 2, 2010.
Tour Dates:
2/9 – Los Angeles, California – Troubadour
2/11 – San Francisco, California – Popscene @ 330 Ritch
2/15 – Toronto, Ontario – El Mocambo
2/18 – New York, New York – Bowery Ballroom