Mumford and Sons debut is more than extraordinary, it’s legendary. They have thought-provoking lyrics, excellent musicianship, and genius composition work. They do all of this and sound so very original at the same time. It’s not popular to construct songs that have smart lyrics and play in a hymn-like structure. But, Mumford and Sons do it. And they do it so well.
There are so many reasons why Mumford and Sons just stands out from the crowd. You could talk about the fact that they use a double bass as opposed to a regular electric bass. Or you could talk about the extremely complex strumming rhythms that Mumford plays and the fact that he is able to sing excellently over it. Or you could talk about the profoundly deep, poetic, visually-striking lyrics they have:
For every kiss your beauty trumped my doubt
And my head told my heart let love grow
But my heart told my head, this time no
This time no
- Winter Winds
Look over your head and be still
The sky above shoots to kill
Rain down, rain dow
On me.
I will hold on.
I will hold on.
I will hold on hold.
-Thistle & Weeds
You can also told about the wonderfully constructed builds that they employ in songs like “Thistle & Weeds”, “Little Lion Man”, “Dust Bowl Man”. The list goes on and on.
The point is that this is not just an album that tops my list in 2010, but also breaks into my list of top ten albums of all time. It is so very refreshing to hear an album that doesn’t treat you mindlessly with music, but challenges you and pushes you to think. To think about the lyrics they sing, to think about musically why they construct and progress the way they do, and to just quite-frankly enjoy the songs on so many levels.
I forsee this album to be on repeat for quite some time.
Favorite songs from the album
All of them, but will put some embedded links later.
