Mumford & Sons – Babel (2012)

I was a bit late for the Mumford & Sons party. Sigh No More had already made this band a phenomenon, but I only really discovered the band fully after Babel was released. More specifically, the song I Will Wait that was playing everywhere caught my ears and I was very impressed. This happened right in the middle of my folk phase, where I would listen to both more traditional old folk and the new wave of, especially American folk. Mumford & Sons is not really a purist folk band, since the songs are produced with way too modern sounds and there's no authentic acoustic sound in most of the songs. Nevertheless, I really liked the catchy pop melodies and the use of super fast banjo. I ended up buying both this and the first album Sigh No More around the same time from sale when the biggest fuss was over.



I was really disappointed in the fact that I could only find these albums on a jewel case CD. From around 2013 I have bought very few albums on a jewel case CD. I always try to find either a cardboard version or buy a vinyl.

There are lots and lots of hits on this album. The album starts with the title track Babel. This song has a rougher style of vocals than in rest of the album and it shows off the fast banjo lines. The next song Whispers in the Dark shows both the soft and beautiful side of Mumford & Sons as the more boisterous side of them. I Will Wait is the most obvious hit song on this album. The chorus will play in your ears for days after you've heard it. Ghosts That We Knew lowers the volume and shows how the band sounds with a more minimalistic approach. Production-wise, I would've probably left off the strings and loud echoes on this song, so we could've enjoyed a bit purer folk sounds. Reminder is a better example of how to make a simplistic and beautiful folk song, where the guitar has the main stage along with the story and the vocals. Hopeless Wanderer is a masterpiece in growing pop songs. It starts off really wistfully and quietly, but then explodes into full blast song that just speeds faster and faster and louder and louder. This is probably my favourite song on the album. Broken Crown has a dark melody and anguished vocals, which makes it also one of the jewels on the album.

By the time I got acquainted with Mumford & Sons, they were already a huge deal and they were filling big arenas. This is why I've never seen them live. I usually refuse to pay more than £50 for concert tickets, because there are so many amazing options available for much less in London. Their shows after the second album do, however, look pretty great, as is apparent from this I Will Wait video which is strangely a live version even if it's the official music video.

Even though I really like some of these songs, I feel like all the songs on the album are too similar. Once you've heard one of them, you've pretty much heard them all. Even so, the first two Mumford & Sons albums are worth owning for their great hit songs. I'm also glad that they made folk music quite fashionable again for a while. Too bad their third album was such a disappointment. It didn't have nearly any traces of folk music anymore. It was just boring adult oriented pop rock. I guess it's difficult being this big of a band and not get ruined.

Listen to the album on Spotify.