IN REVIEW: Mumford and Sons - "Delta"

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With their fourth album, Mumford and Sons have decided to take another step away from their folk-rock beginnings, this time playing around with electronics and infusing some modern sensibilities into their once charmingly old fashioned sound. While it's commendable for a band of their stature to take some chances at this stage of their journey (and only three years removed from taking a big chance with their last album), at a certain point a band starts to lose their identity; their status as unwilling poster boys for what became a veritable hipster phenomenon notwithstanding, by dulling and standardizing their approach on Wilder Mind Mumford and Sons chose to blend into the sonic landscape rather than lead it in a new direction.

On Delta, an album-length exercise in homogenization, Mumford and Sons showcase the maturity and melodic strengths that they're well known for, and the results are pleasant enough in moderation. However, much like Wilder Mind, there are a handful of songs that stand out and a lot of similarly-minded tracks that blur together in a beige mush. This time, however, the mundane is more pronounced; Delta stretches out more than an hour in length, trying to give an impression of grandness that only occasionally comes close to reality.

There is precious little bite to this record; lead single Guiding Light is a nice and easy song that is possibly the most energetic thing on here. Likewise, all experimentation is distilled down to "let's try out a drum machine", "use the banjos to make a beat" or "have someone read a passage from Paradise Lost". So as to say, for all the pre-release talk of how adventurous this record would be, you'd think Delta would stray outside the lines of your standard Spotify playlist every once in a while.

To be clear, I wasn't looking for leaps and bounds from Delta; Mumford and Sons don't have to pull a Radiohead to earn my respect. That said, as much implied disdain as they seem to have for the scene they helped create, there are better places to retreat to than the middle of the road.

November 16, 2018 • Gentlemen of the Road/Glassnote
Highlights Guiding Light • Woman • If I Say

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