Music Review: Mumford and Sons

Photo From Stereogum.com

The sad day came that my iPod was full and I had to put my iTunes on a diet...deep sigh. As I was clearing out my collection I discovered about 50% of my 25 top played songs are all from the same band, Mumford & Sons. So I felt a review on them was necessary. Mumford & Sons are an English folk rock band. The band consists of Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane; they were formed in December 2007.

Their debut album, Sigh No More, was released in the UK and Ireland in October 2009, and February 2010 in the US. The album reached number one in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and eventually peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US as well as being the most played album on my iPod EVER. The band gained popularity throughout 2010 and at the end of that year the band received two Grammy Award nominations, one for Best New Artist and the other for Best Rock Song ("Little Lion Man"). The ensuing live performance at the Grammy ceremony in February 2011 led to increased airplay and popularity for singles from Sigh No More. The band won the ARIA Music Award for Most Popular International Artist in 2010, and the Brit Award in 2011 for Best British Album.

The band's second studio album Babel was released in September 2012. The album debuted at number one in the UK and US, becoming the fastest selling album of 2012 in the UK, and the second-biggest selling debut in 2012 in the US. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, they sang "I Will Wait" and Babel won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In 2013 the band won a Brit Award for Best British Group. In just 6 short years this band have made an incredible mark on the music industry with 2 outstanding albums, sell out tours and by breaking into America with their unique folk sound.  

I have loved Mumford & Sons since the beginning and I am absolutely ecstatic by their success! They have an amazing sound and original songs which are just beautiful to listen to. I was lucky enough to see them live at the Metro Radio Arena in December 2012 for my birthday; I saw them on their Tour of Two Halves circuit and it was absolutely amazing (even though I was still on crutches). They are one of these bands where seeing them live if completely different to listening to the album in the fact that they are just such good performers and are outstanding musicians.  If you ever get a chance to see them perform live take it by two hands and don’t let go!

Own Photo Taken in Dec 2012

Mumford & Sons are the type of band which makes you patriotic in that they still help you believe in true British talent. This band have already had big things happen to them and I hope they come coming; I am confident to say that Mumford & Sons are one of my favourite bands and have produced two of my favourite albums. I physically can’t pick a favourite song out of the lot but I managed to narrow it down to a top 3 from each album.

Sigh No More

1)      White Blank Page

2)      Little Lion Man

3)      The Cave

Babel

1)      Hopeless Wanderer

2)      Reminder

3)      Lover of the Light

If you haven’t already, please check out their albums, they are amazing! But not only have that, Mumford also released a number of collaborations outside the albums which are also amazing and deserve much attention. My personal favourite two are Learn Me Right which they recorded with singer Birdy for the Disney film Brave and The Boxer, where they recorded with the musical legends that are Jerry Douglas and Paul Simon. I will leave the YouTube links to those songs below because they are mind blowing (The Boxer is safely one of my favourite songs of all time) 

Hope you enjoyed reading and please leave any comments you have below and I will reply to them! Hope you are all well and thank you, Hann xxx