Skip to main content

IN REVIEW: Mumford and Sons - "Delta"


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

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Year in Rock 2025

  Alright, I've got some explaining to do.   By now anyone who's visited this blog is well aware of how infrequently I've used this space in recent years; aside from the occasional fertile year of content, I really haven't posted all that often over the last five years or so. There are many reasons for this, which have already been outlined in previous apology posts; but, essentially, it boils down to my own laziness and the cold reality that blogs are, like Refused (again), fucking dead. So, I wouldn't hold my breath for a triumphant return to reviews, or even semi-regular posts, but:   a) I feel like Year in Rock posts have always belonged here and, even though I've experimented with different methods of presentation recently and been satisfied, the "blink and you missed it" unveiling via Facebook stories this year was perhaps ultimately a disservice to the records I lauded. After all, cramming the list into short videos isn't too far off from ju...
Post a Comment
Read more

Year in Rock 2011 Nominee: Sam Roberts Band

SAM ROBERTS BAND I Feel You From: Collider Released: May 10 Having already endured the breakout success ( Brother Down was Canada's it rock song of 2002), the tentative dabbling in the U.S. market, as is the rite of passage for all moderately successful Canuck artists (2003's debut We Were Born in a Flame was the best time to try; one of the best albums of the year, it made a small dent in the American mindset upon its release there a year later), the difficult, druggy third album (the aptly named 2005 disc Chemical City ), and the subdued creative step backward (2008's Love at the End of the World , aside from hit single Them Kids , was really kinda bland), it seems according to script that Sam Roberts would start settling in on his fourth album (and first with the band credited as equal contributors), Collider (you know, I think it was a bad idea to give me brackets). Well, as far as settling in goes, Roberts does and doesn't on Collider .  W...
Post a Comment
Read more

IN REVIEW: Rancid - "Trouble Maker"

As far as punk rock goes, it's hard to name a hotter hot streak than the trio of records Rancid cranked out between 1995 and 2000; the star making ...And Out Come the Wolves , the far-reaching Life Won't Wait and their balls-to-the-wall second self-titled album solidly positioned Rancid as leaders of the second generation of punk. It also preceded a period of slow progression, as Rancid would take eleven years to release their next three records. By the time ...Honor Is All We Know came in 2014, many fans (myself included) had to wonder whether or not this was the end of the road. Such concerns are handily dealt with on the closing track of the standard edition of their ninth record, the positively punishing This Is Not the End . Well, okay then, that's sorted. Now, what of this new record? What do we make of the use of their original logo on the cover, a logo that hasn't graced a Rancid record in 25 years? Is this a throwback to the band's heyday, a new begin...
Post a Comment
Read more