 | Tracklist:
1.Sigh No More
2.The Cave
3.Winter Winds
4.Roll Away Your Stone
5.White Blank Page
6.I Gave You All
7.Little Lion Man
8.Timshel
9.Thistle & Weeds
10.Awake My Soul
11.Dust Bowl Dance
12.After The Storm
Release Date: 10/05/2009 | |
| | other reviews | Davey Boy STAFF (3.5)
Delivering folk - and the banjo - to the masses.... | Michael Philp (3.5)
Despite murdering their best idea with the best intentions Mumford & Sons still manage to craft a se... |
On 16 Lists
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| Summary: With banjo in hand, Mumford & Sons have created the debut album of the year. |
2 of 2 thought this review was well written
For too long the genre of folk and blues has been associated with the hill billy, finger picked guitar and straw in mouth kind of... well, folk. Though 2008/9 has emerged as the years that the stereotype of folk has been broken thanks to the large shift of music coming out of the west London scene. Brilliant albums from Noah and the Whale, indie songstress Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn and now Mumford & Sons provide us with the fact that folk, blues and roots is once again becoming cool and fun to listen to. Sigh No More is the debut effort by Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, Ben Lovett and Ted Dwane.
The opening and also title track, being almost an a cappella tune, ‘Sigh No More’ hits the spot perfectly. It slowly builds from its mellow beginnings into an almost danceable finish and puts goose bumps down your spine with the epic ending chorus, sending a good flow on message for the rest of the album as it follows this quite catchy and hook laden approach, such as the lead single, ‘Little Lion Man.’ Gathering almost a cult following in Australia, ‘Little Lion Man’ is a pop-ish track, though still featuring the key Mumford sound of the banjo and mandolin. Whilst the single has gained mainstream success, for the first time from these polite young humble people an expletive is thrown in over and over again through the chorus:
”But it was not your fault but mine,
And it was your heart on the line,
I really f--ked it up this time,
Didn't I, my dear?”
While they may be able to gain the mainstream following, that doesn’t keep Mumford from keeping the traditional folk like ballads flowing. ‘Awake My Soul’ is dreamily and soothingly sang by Marcus Mumford, and is probably the most beautiful track on the album, throwing in amazing one liners like, ”In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die / Where you invest your love, you invest your life”. The only real downside of Sigh No More is the dwindling of consistency in the last track, 'After The Storm' which seem to drag, and really add nothing new to the table making it almost boring. That being said, Mumford still capture your heart with their balladry and interesting lyrics, "You must know life to see decay/But I won't rot, I won't rot/Not this mind and not this heart."
Throughout the album you are hit with sorrowful ballads, knee slapping and danceable upbeat songs, and of course the key Mumford & Sons elements, Marcus’s incredible voice, which is embellished by the banjo, which fits just perfectly. In Sigh No More we are treated to ‘hoe-down’ perfection, discussing themes of love and beauty. Instead, like fellow folk musician Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), they don’t want to wither away in sorrow, so Mumford & Sons have packed their album with catchy, hook filled and danceable tunes that keep you listening over and over again.
Don’t worry about the page number or bookmark; these London boys are like an entirely secret chapter of mood-altering poetry.
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
I struggled writing this one. Album is cool though...
Digging: The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt | | |
Umm, Laura's album didn't come out in 2009.
Digging: Otouto - Pip
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Yeah I know... but you know what I mean.
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Not really.
| | | Album Rating: 3
have this but haven't listened yet!
Digging: The Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt | | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Get to it NOW!
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Little Lion Man is such a great song, cool to see a review for this.
Digging: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Yeah, the video clip is a bit meh though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lk1wkbWI6I
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idk if I want to listen to this.
Digging: Major Lazer - Guns Dont Kill People... Lazers Do
| | | Album Rating: 4.5
Album is fantastic, give it a listen Roach.
Digging: Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More | | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
^ Damn straight.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Nice review, now I have no reason not to check this out.
Digging: Coheed and Cambria - Year of the Black Rainbow | | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Yes, definitely check them out.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Haha will do dude.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Good to see you followed my recommendation & reviewed this Dougie. It came out pretty well too. Big call saying this is the debut of the year (fun. is mine), but fair enough I guess. By the way, put a "the" before "debut" in the summary.
Oh & guess which chorus just found its way back into my head. Damn you Douglas.
Digging: Lostprophets - The Betrayed | | |
Debut of the year? Phwoarrr, La Roux
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Thanks mate, will fix that little error, getting better at proof reading haha!
But yeah debut of the year = this > Yves Klein Blue > The Temper Trap
Not counting Paul Dempsey since I don't know, he already has a big enough fan base though SFK.
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It's his debut album though
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
Very true. I might bump this up to a 4.5 soon.
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I love banjos.
Digging: The Dear Hunter - Act III: Life and Death
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