For me, Sturgill Simpson is, I think, awesome. 'Voices' is one of my favourites by him.

I am beginning to think my Sir is purposely doing this so that I will post things in this journal! :)

Tonight we listened to two Mumford and Sons albums:

Sigh No More
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and

Babel
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These two albums are two of my favourite albums in existence. They rate an L on the LPUC scale, without question. If they never made another album, for the sake of these two, I would always love them. In fact, their Wilder Mind album I don't even like. But yet I love Mumford and Sons because of these two albums.

Now, for why.

In one of the tracks on Sigh No More (itself a reference to a line from Much Ado About Nothing, which for a Shakespeare buff like me would be enough to draw my ear), there are two lines which go:

"In these bodies we will live; in these bodies we will die.
Where you invest your love, you invest your life."

Those two lines encapsulate the message of both these albums, and yes, there is indeed a message. It is one of the things I find most arresting about these albums, about the band itself, even.

It is as though Marcus Mumford is standing there saying, "This is my ass. This is a hole in the ground. They are not the same." He is making this statement very clearly and unequivocally.

Now, I am a sucker for an unequivocal statement. I love Rush and their A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres, and that despite the fact I find them terminally naive. They are making a statement and throwing all their philosophical weight behind it.

Mumford and Sons do the same thing. They have a clearly defined worldview, and they are not shy about putting it into their music. Add to this manly courage (I swoon over manliness.), a haunting Celtic cry, as in "White Blank Page" or a mournful violin and a pulsing banjo as in "Lover of the Light", and you have a recipe for the most perfectly appointed band for my ears.

Let me put it another way. I have been to fewer concerts than I have fingers. Rare is the time when I have actually been to see an artist live. For Mumford and Sons, I was willing to take time off work and travel just to see them. (As it happened, they ended up having a closer concert than Fuji Rock, but I was going to go to Fuji Rock just for them.)

There are other albums I love as much as these, but none I love more. A coherent philosophy, eloquently expounded, with Celtic wails and a sincerity that makes even Johnny Cash sound artificial?

Yes. Oh very yes.

I've read all over the internet how reviled Mumford & Sons are, and how if you want to listen to them, you should listen to The Frames or Of Monsters and Men instead. I don't get that. I don't understand the hatred so many people have for this band. I listen to them, and I also listen to The Frames and Of Monsters and Men. :) I love them all!

i don't hate mumford and sons but i am not a fan either. they just don't do anything for me.

But ... neither The Frames nor Of Monsters and Men--and Of Monsters and Men is one of my favourite bands of ever--sound remotely like Mumford and Sons.

This has to do with those stupid genre labels, doesn't it? I bet they all share some stupid, meaningless genre label! :mad:

Oh **** you both. They are dull indie pop garbage with banjos.

Mumford & Sons = REM + banjos

EDIT: I've been beat to it

But ... I like REM. And banjos.

I definitely like banjos.

That's bull****. REM are good indie pop. Mumford and Sons wish they could be REM with banjos.