Unfortunately, just about the whole world knows how good this London foursome’s first album is by now. It won’t stop me though from extolling the virtues of this forty-six plus minutes of sheer delight. At a time when there are large swathes of mediocrity coming out of the music industry Mumford & Son’s Sigh No More stands out like a beacon of brilliant incandescence.
The first thing to say is how can a band become this good so quickly when they only formed in late 2007. There are shades of other groups in the Mumfords that come under the folk/rock/bluegrass domain. Fairport Convention, Strawbs, Dubliners, Pogues and Lindisfarne are names from the past that come to mind. There’s also a much more contemporary feel with the likes of Kings of Leon, Arcade Fire and the Maccabees in the same melting pot.
Stand-out tracks on the album are The Cave which is a great boisterous folk singalong with so much energy, Winter Winds has a feeling of Christmas with a marvellous brass processional finale, Awake My Soul is a feelgood piece with a rousing change of tempo and perhaps the pick of the album Little Lion Man which shows the band’s lyrical maturity so well, about a man wrestling with his ego after letting down his loved one.
There are other aspects of the Mumford’s music that make them special though. The first is Marcus Mumford’s distinct vocal style, angst driven but with a passion that just screams to be listened to. It singles the group out from the others in the same way as Anthony Followill seems to have done for Kings of Leon.
It would be unfair to say this is any way a one-man band though. The musical dexterity is prodigious throughout and for any guitar aficionados just listen to that banjo playing on Roll Away Your Stone and Little Lion Man. It is not just the musicianship that is excellent though, the production is masterly, crisp and clear.
This is the total package then at the first attempt. It’s a work of maturity in so many ways and such a good starting point for four men in their early 20s. It will be a surprise if they don’t get awards for this and it will be interesting to see how things progress in 2010 and beyond.
Unlike so many albums there is a consistency of track that is rarely found. It is one of my bugbears that you sometimes get a few great tracks on an album but rare that you get the whole twelve that you love. I have heard others say it is one of their favourites of all time and I can see it becoming a worthy classic in years to come.
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