Net Music Review

Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons

There has been something of a folk music revival going on both sides of the Atlantic recently with Fleet Foxes in Seattle (hardly your archetypal Seattle band) and here in the UK, Mumford & Sons. Born out of the folk scene in London during 2007, Mumford & Sons are associated with other acts which have risen to prominence before themselves such as Laura Marling (acting as her backing band) and also Noah & The Whale with several members attending the same schools.

"Sigh No More" is their debut album, released in October 2009 on Island Records and it seems a little odd that the record company would chose to release a record drenched with sunshine and hazy afternoons so late on in the year. Still, that is petty criticism, picking at bones and of no real consequence. Starting off with the title track, the listener is treated to gently strummed acoustic guitars with haunting vocal harmonies before it explodes with a burst of Technicolor that includes banjos and accordions that leads straight into the single "The Cave". It is here that you are first struck by the similarity between singer Marcus Mumford's voice and Michael Stipe of R.E.M., it is quite uncanny. "The Cave" builds to a climax throughout the song again with the banjo taking centre stage which all feels so refreshing in the face of so much manufactured modern music these days.

"Winter Winds" although contradicting an earlier observation, has an almost Irish feel to it and you could almost be forgiven if you closed your eyes in thinking you'd been transported to Dublin. Both "Roll Away The Stone" and "White Blank Page" almost trick you into thinking you listening to something from Van Morrisons "Astral Weeks" before changing pace and morphing into something now recognisably "Mumford & Sons" with almost soft, loud song dynamics being employed combined with Mumford's earnest, seemingly pained vocals. "I Gave You All" finds Mumford sounding angrier than at any other point on the album, with music that creates a dark, brooding atmosphere. "Little Lion Man" follows on and is a bundle of barely contained energy, almost trying to leap out at you from the speakers, the banjo driving it on and on to another giddy climatic ending.

Just as the songs seem to becoming overly formulaic, relying only on a slow start building to crescendo "Timshel" comes as welcome relief slowing the pace of the proceedings down with pared down accompaniment and harmonies. "Thistle & Weeds" reverts back to type with gentle beginning, but surprisingly seems to turn into a Nick Cave song with crashing pianos and dramatic percussion and shows that Mumford & Sons may have more than one musical string to their bow. After the thunder and lightening of "Thistle & Weeds", "Awake My Soul" sounding oddly optimistic and brings us back into what is now familiar territory, before "Dust Bowl Dance" again shows undercurrents of Nick Cave before closing with "After The Storm" which seems to float away on a still summers evening.

"Sigh No More" as an album does not break new ground and has not reinvented a previously tired genre, instead it shows folk music at its most dynamic and yet still retains the feel of a summer evening. Its easy to fall quickly in love with this album and curl up dreaming of a summers day, lying in a meadow with the breeze blowing through the grass…