Mumford & Sons – Wilder Mind (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Mumford & Sons – Wilder Mind (2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 48:40 minutes | 985 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Universal-Island Records Ltd.

Wilder Mind is British rock band Mumford & Sons’ third studio album. The record is a follow-up to their previous two successful albums Sign No More and Grammy winning Album of the Year, Babel. The new 12-trackGlassnote Records release features singles “Believe” and “The Wolf”. The group took a different approach with Wilder Mind, leaving out their signature acoustic instrumentals (more specifically their highly featured banjo), yet the band states the songwriting remains the same. This is sure to be another masterful record from these London natives.

Who could blame Mumford & Sons for running away from their signature banjo stomp? Come 2015, when Wilder Mind saw spring release, so many bands had copped their big-footed folk jamboree that Mumford & Sons could feel the straitjacket constricting, so it’s not a surprise that the group decided to try on something new. A change in fashion isn’t strange — no band wants to be pigeonholed — but the odd thing about Wilder Mind is now that everybody else sounds like Mumford & Sons, Mumford & Sons decide to sound like everybody else. Without their old-timey affectations, the band seems interchangeable with any number of blandly attractive AAA rockers, a group that favors sound over song — a curious switch for a purportedly old-fashioned quartet. Sometimes, the band do swing for arena-filling hooks and connect — the quietly escalating “Believe,” the incessant surge of “The Wolf,” “Ditmas,” which is the only song here that would scale to bare-bones acoustic arrangements — but usually they subsist on a simmer, letting their immaculate, tasteful rock bubble quietly without ever threatening to spill over the edge. Often, the persistent, moody murmur recalls a diluted Kings of Leon, a comparison that can’t help but underscore how Mumford & Sons have made the journey from retro throwback to glistening modern construction. Where once they carved their music out of reclaimed wood, they’re now all steel and glass — a bit sleeker but also a bit chillier. Such a description suggests this is a big shift, but it’s all surface: underneath that exterior, Wilder Mind is the same Mumford & Sons, peddling reasonably handsome reconstructions of times gone by. –Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Tracklist:
01. Mumford & Sons – Tompkins Square Park (05:11)
02. Mumford & Sons – Believe (03:41)
03. Mumford & Sons – The Wolf (03:41)
04. Mumford & Sons – Wilder Mind (04:38)
05. Mumford & Sons – Just Smoke (03:10)
06. Mumford & Sons – Monster (03:56)
07. Mumford & Sons – Snake Eyes (04:08)
08. Mumford & Sons – Broad-Shouldered Beasts (04:20)
09. Mumford & Sons – Cold Arms (02:49)
10. Mumford & Sons – Ditmas (03:38)
11. Mumford & Sons – Only Love (04:36)
12. Mumford & Sons – Hot Gates (04:47)

Personnel:
Marcus Mumford – lead vocals, electric guitar, drums
Ted Dwane – vocals, acoustic bass, electric bass
Ben Lovett – vocal, piano, keyboard, synthesiser
Winston Marshall – vocals, electric guitar

Additional:
James Ford – drums, percussion, keyboards
Tom Hobden – violin
Thomas Bartlett – keyboards
Dave Nelson – trombone
Aaron Dessner – keyboards
Benjamin Lanz – trombone

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