Photo:
It tells you everything you need to know about Mumford & Sons that for the first big photo shoot announcing their ‘rock’ album, Marcus Mumford wore a pair of boat shoes.
This is a group profoundly unconcerned with any of the non-musical activities of your average band: they clearly loathe the interview process, aren’t concerned with rivalling Kanye and Noel for quotables, couldn’t care less about fashion, won't talk politics and aren’t in the slightest bit fussed about whether you consider them to be ‘cool’.
What they do care about is crafting albums, curating their Gentlemen Of The Road stopovers (any band that books Primal Scream, Jenny Lewis, Tune-Yards and Foo Fighters is OK by us), as well as experimenting with their multitude of side projects (from running Communion Records to working on soundtracks with the Coen Bros).
As a group, they have sold over six million albums by working to a barnstorming hoedown template - and now they want to tinker with it. Having toured near constantly for seven years and come close to imploding (they told DIY recently “We kind of split up”), it was clearly time for a change.
The band have also had to battle with the fact that they’ve been so successful that everyone from Avicii to Gary Barlow has co-opted their country’n’kickdrums sound. While not being quite as surprising a musical u-turn as it might be - imagine if they’d gone disco - on Wilder Mind Mumford have ditched the banjo, cast aside the double bass and have ventured into the world of AOR.
When it works, it's wonderful. ‘The Wolf’ may be the best thing the band have ever done: a thrilling belter that should go down a treat at Reading. That and the scrappy brilliance of ‘Ditmas’ show what happens when the band get out of their own way: they emerge as not folky fetishists but rather rabble rousing country rockers. Wilder Mind turns out to be an album of intense feelings, expertly articulated. ‘Only Love’ in particular manages to perfectly encapsulate that moment your jetlagged body navigates an oversized American hirecar onto the highway and you head for the middle of the road at speed.
The problem the band have is since they've ditched their trademark sound, they wear their influences a little bit too clearly. ‘Tomkins Square Park’ sounds so much like the War On Drugs you can imagine Mark Kozelek picking a fight with it. There are some distinctly Coldplay-esque moments, notably on the self-doubt riddled ‘Believe’ that resembles an X&Y b-side only with added The Edge. There are tracks that sound like Kings Of Leon and tracks that sound like Fleetwood Mac - Mumford may be the only Knopfler-free band in history who actually want to sound like Dire Straits. Given that they actually recorded in a garage studio owned by Aaron Dessner, it’s also perhaps unsurprising that at moments they do sound very much like The National (if the title track drank a little more heavily it might sit morosely at the bar alongside 'Pink Rabbits').
Overall this album is a intriguing experiment - it’s just a shame they didn’t push it further. This third LP shows Mumford's potential: if they can ditch the waistcoats and the fiddling, they can properly rock out to great effect. The band do sometimes get a far harder time than they deserve - this time round including a bizarre tendency to bodyshame Marcus (Q described him as ‘hearty faced’, Billboard compared his ‘sturdy frame’ to “Trading Places era Dan Ackroyd”) - but even the harshest critic would be silenced by a truly great record. Wilder Mind isn't it - but it's the best sign yet that the band are on the right track. What's clear is that Mumford's future will only be safe as long as they keep taking risks.
Wilder Mind is out 4 May (Island).
Mumford & Sons are the third headliners or this year's Reading + Leeds festivals, alongside The Libertines and Metallica. For Reading tickets visit here, and for Leeds tickets visit here.
They also are playing a Scottish date of their Gentlemen Of The Road tour at Aviemore on 31 July featuring support from Ben Howard, Primal Scream, The Maccabees, Simian Mobile Disco. Lianne La Havas, Jack Garratt, King Charles and Honeyblood. For tickets and information, visit here.
