For those who aren't hip to the lingo I just made up, a placeholder video is a video a band posts to whet their fans' insatiable appetites whilst putting together a proper video. You know, those "official lyric videos" and the like. In Mumford & Sons' case, they just let the camera roll en route to Red Rocks:
As for that song? It's undeniably Mumford in that's it's dripping with the old-timey charm that made Sigh No More such a massive and unexpected platinum smash. My primary concern is that it lacks a bit of the hunger, that fire that was ever-present on their debut. It's hard to replicate that fire once you've sold a million records (especially in this day and age), so it's not really a shock. But, just compare the chorus of I Will Wait to, say, Little Lion Man. The difference in intensity is borderline disturbing. To its credit, the tune is more refined from a songwriting perspective, and one also has to concede the possible fatigue from the relentless touring that happened around the album's recording; my hope for Babel is that the inevitable loss of desire to "make it" is mostly made up for with improved overall songs. We'll see soon enough, I guess.
Babel is out September 25 on Glassnote.
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