Mumford & Sons: Sigh No More

All it took was one live experience at CMJ from Mumford & Sons to justify our need to get home and listen to their début album. Quickly.

With the bass set respectfully low and every speaker surround-sounding their little circuits off, we finally manage to get under the skin of a band that are swiftly becoming one of the biggest names of 2009.

Each individual song holds a particular crutch; it might be just a riff, a break or a well-placed, melodically presented lyric (this one happens a lot) and never once do they stumble into the territory of monotony or the overblown. For almost fifty minutes of runtime, that's pretty impressive. It begs the question as to how such a new, young band go into a studio and come up with twelve individual songs, each as brilliantly crafted as the next and with not a slither of filler in sight. We've heard of strong débuts but this is just ridiculous.

From nowhere, a raucous banjo will explode to life and stir up a whirlwind of folk-rock, wrapping the listener in soaring, excitable chorus lines, tambourine slams and some of the best lyrics to come out of London since The bloody Smiths. Haunting vocals and a rumbling acoustic line follows front-man Marcus Mumford as he croons eerily over album midpoint I Gave You All. "If only I had an enemy bigger than my apathy, I could've won" he admits before the music quickens and breathless harmonic "I gave you all" chants ooze from every member's throat. It breaks into a shouting mess of a last minute that flips the gentle remorse of the beginning stretch on its head, highlighting the band's almost progressive take on the genre that they have so swiftly decided to rip to bits.

Cycling through the album tracks reveals no cracks or signs of weakness in the bands talent and breath-taking views are clear to see throughout the entire CD's topography. Thistle & Weed's twisting green-sleeves-esque rhythm and wordy story, The Cave's simple, slow-burning intro and bursting, frolicking break, album title and intro-track Sigh No More's harmonic twinkling and uplifting lyricism; "Love it will not betray, dismay or enslave you, it will set you free". It's all greatly rewarding and equally fantastic to see on a début album. So much strength this early on in their career is a unique and impressive thing to possess and it's obviously paying off, what with Radio 1 and Zane Lowe hyping the album as if it were forged from solid platinum. 

Aside from all of the banjo playing, kick-drum stomping, tambourine smashing and heart-wrenching folk brilliance, there really does lie a gem-strewn stable foundation for the entire record and that is moustachioed front-man Marcus Mumford himself. He's a fantastic contradiction of a gentle but powerful front-man and can croon his soul out just as quickly as he can spit angst in our direction. Another big thumbs up is how astute his song-writing actually is. He wraps his words around the instrumentation like it were an instrument itself and can solely create an entire atmosphere with just his vocal pitching and melody. There are many moments throughout the album that deserve a rewind just to catch what he said again and though he does repeat the words 'love', 'heart', 'body' and 'soul' a bit too frequently throughout the L.P, he's forgiven for his intelligent structuring and wordplay. 

"How fickle my heart and how woozy my eyes, I struggle to find any truth in your lies". He begins on Awake My Soul. "Lend me your eyes i can change what you see" he promises afterwards, inflecting a youthful tone in his timbre. "In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die and where you invest your love, you invest your life" he repeats before the rumbling strum of an acoustic guitar sends the song spiralling into a gentle rock-a-billy chant-off between the members. It's followed by another high point in the form of Dust Bowl Dance, anothet slow-burner that burns in folk-rock Hell for the last two and a half minutes. We could keep going on about the ins-and-outs of each track but honestly, it's really best you experience them yourself as it'd take too long to explain them all (we haven't even spoke about the near-perfect album closer After The Storm yet).

It's a huge album, already hitting number eleven in the UK album charts and is wilfully doing the rounds on every radio station in town but for once, it's all worth it. A band who can appeal to the masses and yet still show so much passion, emotion and love for their job is something of rarity today and so it's wholly refreshing to enjoy a band almost as much as they seem to be enjoying it themselves.

All new bands take note: this is how a début album is done.