Brits with Banjos - Mumford & Sons

I was driving home from work one day in late May, 2010, or maybe it was school, but that doesn't matter, and I had the radio on, that however does matter, as I never usually listen to the radio, I've usually got my iPod playing in the car. I was flipping around the radio stations and came upon a song that caught my attention. It was a new song, both new to me and recently released. I liked it, but had no idea who or what it was. I had come into it in the middle of the song, so I tried to make a note of the lyrics so I could Google them when I got home. After the song was over, I switched to another station, and there was that song again, but again it was in the middle of the song. However, this time, at the end of the song, the station announced both the name of the song and the band. The song, The Cave. The band, Mumford & Sons.

As soon as I got home I looked up this band, and bought Mumford & Sons debut record, Sigh No More. I really didn't know what to expect from the rest of the record, I didn't listen to the sample songs before I bought it, I was so excited after hearing The Cave, I just wanted to get this music into my head as fast as possible. Another thing that brought me to look into this band was simply the fact that they are British. Thanks to a quartet of Liverpudlians, I have been fairly enthralled with pretty much anything British since I was about 15 years old, so that gave them an advantage when it comes to catching my attention.

The record was, well is, different than anything else I was hearing on mainstream radio, not that I listen to it that often, if even at all. I think that's one thing that attracted me to it. They are folky, like classic old time-y folk. A genre that I have been really enjoying lately. Maybe it's my British and Irish roots showing through, but I really, really love this music. Mumford & Sons was the first of these folk revival bands I have encountered over the last couple years, now of course I have Brown Bird and The Last Bison (well, with the exception of Jakob Dylan, but he's slightly different, I guess.) Sigh No More has a plethora of fantastic songs. They are great lyrically and musically. The instrumentation is awesome, this band uses one of my favorite things, a banjo (if only they used bagpipes, they'd be pure gold!) The title track, Sigh No More is one of my favorite songs on the album. The lyrics quote lines from one of my most favorite books of all time, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, so that's uber cool. The Cave, Winter Winds, Little Lion Man and Awake My Soul are the other most listened to tracks. Mumford & Sons earned Grammy nominations for this record, however, they didn't win, (they did win the Billboard Awards they were nominated for though) But that's OK isn't winning the Grammy's Best New Artist award kinda of a curse anyway?

Two and a half years later, we have been rewarded with yet another amazing Mumford & Sons record: Babel. Released September 25, 2012, Mumford & Sons' sophomore album is just as spectacular as the first. Mumford & Sons carry their amazing sound into all the songs on this record. I Will Wait, Lover of the Light, Lover's Eyes, Where are You Now?  and Holland Road are the top songs for me on this record. Since buying it, I don't think there's been a day that I haven't listened to it. I just can't get enough of these songs, of this record. It's hard to explain, to put into words, but these songs spark something in me, they make me happy. The whole record is rife with feeling, in Marcus Mumford's vocals, the guitars and banjos, strings and mandolins, drums and keys, all these things together make this magical sound and places this record on my top 5 of the year.

If you get the record from iTunes, it comes with a few bonus tracks, one of these tracks in my most favorite on the whole record: a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's The Boxer. I normally have very strong opinions on cover songs, usually I don't really care for them, but depending on the song, and the artist/band covering the song, I may approve (Counting Crows' album Underwater Sunshine and the soundtracks for the films I Am Sam and Across the Universe are prime examples of well done, Jennifer approved cover songs.) The Boxer is one of my favorite Simon & Garfunkel songs and Mumford & Sons do an amazing job with their cover. I really love it.

Recorded in August, and released October 1, Mumford & Sons (and Friends) did a session for the music site Daytrotter. (Daytrotter is a music site which gets our favorite indie, and some mainstream bands, gets them into one of their studios and records stripped down versions of a handful of their songs, it's brilliant, check it out.) For their session, Mumford & Sons (and Friends) do covers of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen,  Roger Miller and my favorite track from the session, the song Not in Nottingham from the Disney classic Robin Hood. Go check this out. The session is fantastic. (While you're at Daytrotter, sign up for a membership, check out all the other amazing bands/sessions available there for your listening pleasure)

This is the part of the post where I recommend buying these records, checking out this band. Most of you have probably already heard of this band, heard one or two of these songs. But if you haven't, do it, or listen to them more. There aren't many mainstream bands that I get excited about, and this is one of them.