3.5/5
Wilder Minds
Artist: Mumford & Sons
Chances are, you have heard something recently about the new Mumford & Sons album, whether it be good or bad. Whereas the previous two M&S albums cemented the band as folk revivalists, Wilder Minds finds the band leaving their acoustics in the cases and whipping out the Fenders and synthesizers. Nobody is claiming the new album to be a classic, or even the band’s best, but there are optimistic people out there. Those yay-sayers are praising the band for not using their established sound as a crutch and getting rid of their trademark style so early in their career. The nay-sayers are admonishing the English band for having nothing to replace that sound with. This absence of something new, they say, exposes the band as an over-stylized, emotionally-empty shell. I lie somewhere in-between these to views.
This is no Bringing It All Back Home. Bob Dylan's landmark 1965 album shed his folkie, protest-singer skin once and for all. But whereas Dylan had a wild electric sound that made a personal attack on the Newport folkies, Mumford has simply adopted the reverb-soaked arena rock sound of so many bands before them. Even at its best, Wilder Minds sounds like Kings of Leon trying to be Coldplay (trying to be early Radiohead). They may have stashed more than their banjos away. Give us a little more identity, boys.
If not that, than at least up your songwriting game. Marcus Mumford’s songwriting has not digressed, but he makes no great lyrical leaps. Any of Wilder Minds’ songs could have been on Sigh No More or Babel if dressed in acoustic arrangements. Looking at it from this angle, the band has done something far less radical than what they are proposing.
It’s not all bad. If you are fans of M&S’ songwriting formula and the way Marcus sings, Wilder Minds welcomes you with open arms. Lead single “Believe” serves as a perfect transition between sounds, with its slow-build verse and bombast chorus and build-up. Look a little deeper, and you find a few tunes even better than “that one I like on the radio.” “Tompkins Square Park” and “The Wolf” nod to Springsteen’s heartland soul, while “Snake Eyes,” the album’s best track, confesses that “I can tell you will always be dangerous.” I can not say the same about the band. Their “new direction” does not propose much danger, but it’s certainly worthy enough to keep me listening.
Wilder Minds
Artist: Mumford & Sons
Chances are, you have heard something recently about the new Mumford & Sons album, whether it be good or bad. Whereas the previous two M&S albums cemented the band as folk revivalists, Wilder Minds finds the band leaving their acoustics in the cases and whipping out the Fenders and synthesizers. Nobody is claiming the new album to be a classic, or even the band’s best, but there are optimistic people out there. Those yay-sayers are praising the band for not using their established sound as a crutch and getting rid of their trademark style so early in their career. The nay-sayers are admonishing the English band for having nothing to replace that sound with. This absence of something new, they say, exposes the band as an over-stylized, emotionally-empty shell. I lie somewhere in-between these to views.
This is no Bringing It All Back Home. Bob Dylan's landmark 1965 album shed his folkie, protest-singer skin once and for all. But whereas Dylan had a wild electric sound that made a personal attack on the Newport folkies, Mumford has simply adopted the reverb-soaked arena rock sound of so many bands before them. Even at its best, Wilder Minds sounds like Kings of Leon trying to be Coldplay (trying to be early Radiohead). They may have stashed more than their banjos away. Give us a little more identity, boys.
If not that, than at least up your songwriting game. Marcus Mumford’s songwriting has not digressed, but he makes no great lyrical leaps. Any of Wilder Minds’ songs could have been on Sigh No More or Babel if dressed in acoustic arrangements. Looking at it from this angle, the band has done something far less radical than what they are proposing.
It’s not all bad. If you are fans of M&S’ songwriting formula and the way Marcus sings, Wilder Minds welcomes you with open arms. Lead single “Believe” serves as a perfect transition between sounds, with its slow-build verse and bombast chorus and build-up. Look a little deeper, and you find a few tunes even better than “that one I like on the radio.” “Tompkins Square Park” and “The Wolf” nod to Springsteen’s heartland soul, while “Snake Eyes,” the album’s best track, confesses that “I can tell you will always be dangerous.” I can not say the same about the band. Their “new direction” does not propose much danger, but it’s certainly worthy enough to keep me listening.