Mumford & Sons have released four studio albums: Sigh No More (2009), Babel (2012), Wilder Mind (2015), and Delta (2018). Sigh No More peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart and the Billboard 200 in the US, with Babel and Wilder Mind both debuting at number one in the UK and US, the former becoming the fastest-selling rock album of the decade and leading to a headline performance at Glastonbury Festival in 2013. The band has also issued two live albums: Live at Shepherd's Bush Empire (2011) and The Road to Red Rocks (2012).
Mumford & Sons were formed in December 2007 by multi-instrumentalists Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane. Band members play acoustic guitar, drums, keyboard instruments, bass guitar, and traditional folk instruments such as banjo, mandolin and resonator guitar. The band name originates from the fact that Marcus Mumford was the most visible member, organizing the band and their performances. Lovett indicated that the name was meant to invoke the sense of an "antiquated family business name".
A handful of similar bands were increasing their visibility in West London around the same time, giving rise to the label "West London folk scene". Mumford downplays that characterisation as an exaggeration—Mumford & Sons and a few other folk acts just happened to be operating in the same general area at the time. In an interview with the Herald Sun, Marcus Mumford said, "It's not folk really. Well, some of it is, and it's certainly not a scene. Someone got over-excited about a few bands who live in a hundred-mile radius and put it in a box to sell it as a package. It's a community, not a scene. It's not exclusive." Having developed in the same musical and cultural environment, Mumford & Sons' sound has been compared to that of artists such as Noah and the Whale, Johnny Flynn and Laura Marling, whose backing band had included Marshall, Mumford, and Dwane.
In early 2008 the band began working with manager Adam Tudhope, who, as part of management company Everybody's, also represents Keane and Laura Marling. It was through Tudhope's connection that Mumford & Sons were exposed to their future A&R at Island, Louis Bloom, who began monitoring the band. Bloom told HitQuarters that they were still at a fledgling state and not yet ready for a label deal: "There was no one there for it, just a few friends, and they needed time to develop. Over the next six months I kept going to see them and they were literally picking up fans every time."
In February 2008, the band completed an extensive UK tour with support from Alessi's Ark, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Peggy Sue and others. June 2008 marked the band's first appearance at the Glastonbury Festival. They also toured Australia with Laura Marling, whose disinclination to interact with audiences encouraged Mumford into the spotlight. The experience helped inform his attitude towards Mumford & Sons audiences, which is to interact frequently and to try to create a comfortable, casual atmosphere. Mumford & Sons' first project was an EP entitled Love Your Ground which took a year to complete and was released in November 2008 on Chess Club Records.
The band began by using bluegrass and folk instrumentation, with the core instruments of acoustic guitar, banjo, piano and a double bass, played with a rhythmic style based in alternative rock and folk. In the documentary Big Easy Express, Marcus Mumford recognizes the Old Crow Medicine Show influence: "I first heard Old Crow’s music when I was, like, 16, 17, and that really got me into, like, folk music, bluegrass. I mean, I’d listened to a lot of Dylan, but I hadn’t really ventured into the country world so much. So Old Crow were the band that made me fall in love with country music." Mumford acknowledges that "the band inspired them to pick up the banjo and start their now famous country nights in London." Ketch Secor, Old Crow front-man, concurs: "Those boys took the message and ran with it.
Much of Mumford & Sons' lyrical content has a strong literary influence, its debut album name deriving from William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The track "Sigh No More" includes lines from the play such as Serve God love me and mend, For man is a giddy thing, and One foot in sea and one on shore. The title of the song "Roll Away Your Stone" is an allusion to Macbeth; the song includes the line Stars hide your fires/ And these here are my desires which borrows and pares down Macbeth's line in act 1, scene 4: Stars, hide your fires,/ Let not light see my black and deep desires. Additionally, "The Cave" includes several references to The Odyssey, in particular the sirens that Odysseus encounters on his journey home. The song also contains many references to G.K. Chesterton's book, St. Francis of Assisi, in which Chesterton uses Plato's Cave as a way of explaining how St. Francis views the world from God's perspective. "Little Lion Man" appears to be a retelling in dramatic monologue form of Chretien de Troyes' Yvain, the Knight of the Lion, which is the story of a knight who goes mad after betraying a promise to his wife to return to her. Both "Timshel" and "Dust Bowl Dance" draw heavily from the John Steinbeck novels Of Mice and Men, East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath.
The band's change in sound on their third album was described by Lovett as a "natural departure." At the end of the Babel tour Winston Marshall traded his banjo for electric guitar in sound checks and Mumford started playing more drums as the band jammed on heavy instrumentals and even some Radiohead tunes. Banjo does not feature on the record, an instrument that had become synonymous with the band. NME reported that the band's sound is "More expansive than ever and decidedly heavier, thanks to the shift in instrumentation." The group also employed a full drumkit instead of kick drum. "We've had our standard line-up of instruments for the last six years and we felt like that was our palette, [but] we started picking up other stuff," said Lovett. "It's a very natural departure from some of that rootsier stuff."
Lovett told NME that working with James Ford for Wilder Mind was part of trying something new. "We felt a need for change. Not from Markus [Dravs], but he was so closely attached to those first two records that as we had taken that time off, we wanted to try doing something new. It felt like, if we do our third record with Markus, does that mean we do our ninth and 10th records with Markus? At some point you have to try different things, as we collectively felt like it was time to try other stuff. Markus knows that we might well make the next record with him. We definitely haven't broken up [with Dravs], we're just playing the field!".
The band have won a number of music awards throughout their career, with Sigh No More earning the band the Brit Award for Best British Album in 2011 and six overall Grammy Award nominations. The live performance at the 2011 Grammy ceremony with Bob Dylan and The Avett Brothers led to a surge in popularity for the band in the US. The band received eight total Grammy nominations for Babel and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. The band also won the Brit Award for Best British Group in 2013.
Wilder Mind
Mumford & Sons Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You try to tame me, tame me from the start
When the din is in your eye, flash your flesh
Desperate for a need to rise
With a silver crystal on
How well you used to know how to shine
In the place that's safe from harm
You can be every little thing you want nobody to know
And you can try to drown out the street below
And you can call it love
If you want
Beholden now I find myself awake
Waiting on the edge again
You sleep so sound with your mind made up
Drinking from your cup of broken ends
With a silver crystal on
How well you used to know how to shine
In the place that's safe from harm
I had been blessed with a wilder mind
You can be every little thing you want nobody to know
And you can try to drown out the street below
And you can call it love
If you want
But I thought we believed in an endless love
But I thought we believed in an endless love
The lyrics of Mumford & Sons' "Wilder Mind" describe a person who is unable to be tamed or controlled; their wild and untamed nature is part of their being. The lines "It's in my blood, it's in my water / You try to tame me, tame me from the start" suggest that this trait has been a part of them for a long time and cannot be changed. They are aware that others may see their wildness as a problem or a hindrance, but they refuse to be tamed.
The chorus speaks of the freedom that comes with accepting oneself as they are. The singer sings, "I had been blessed with a wilder mind," suggesting that they see their wildness as a gift rather than a curse. The lines "You can be every little thing you want nobody to know / And you can try to drown out the street below / And you can call it love / If you want" could be interpreted as advice to others who struggle with being accepted. The singer is essentially saying that it's okay to be different and to embrace one's wild side, even if others don't understand it.
The song's bridge speaks to the underlying theme of love and how it can be both endless and fleeting. The lines "But I thought we believed in an endless love" suggest that the singer thought that their love would last forever, but perhaps it has not. The song ultimately celebrates the freedom that comes with embracing one's wilder mind.
Line by Line Meaning
It's in my blood, it's in my water
I have an innate and unshakeable connection to something deep and primal.
You try to tame me, tame me from the start
From the moment we met, you attempted to change me and make me more malleable to your desires.
When the din is in your eye, flash your flesh
When the noise and chaos of the world start to overwhelm you, reveal your true self and let your vulnerability show.
Desperate for a need to rise
In a state of desperation, seeking a way to elevate oneself and break free from stagnation.
With a silver crystal on
Adorned with a shining symbol of one's inner power and strength.
How well you used to know how to shine
You were once confident and unafraid to show your true self to the world.
In the place that's safe from harm
Finding safety and security in a place that is free from danger and harm.
I had been blessed with a wilder mind
I possessed a mind that was unbridled and free, full of creativity and inspiration.
You can be every little thing you want nobody to know
You have the power to be whoever you want, even if it's a version of yourself that nobody knows or sees.
And you can try to drown out the street below
Attempting to ignore the problems and troubles of the outside world by withdrawing into oneself.
And you can call it love
You can use the word 'love' to describe this state of being, even if it's not truly love.
Beholden now I find myself awake
Feeling obligated and indebted, I am now fully aware and alert.
Waiting on the edge again
Anticipating something big and important, while also feeling uncertain and afraid.
You sleep so sound with your mind made up
You are able to rest easily and peacefully due to your clear and determined mindset.
Drinking from your cup of broken ends
Taking sustenance and comfort from something that is incomplete or damaged.
But I thought we believed in an endless love
Expressing surprise and confusion at the realization that the love shared between two people was not as strong or permanent as previously thought.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BENJAMIN WALTER DAVID LOVETT, EDWARD JAMES MILTON DWANE, MARCUS OLIVER JOHNSTONE MUMFORD, WINSTON AUBREY ALADAR MARSHALL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Miley Princess Jhon Jhonogalesco
on Just Smoke
miya u pakabog
Miley Princess Jhon Jhonogalesco
on Believe
miya upakabog
Yuna Ara Najarro
on Believe
hi
PřįŋČễ Lë
on Believe
cheb nadir 2015