Wilder Mind [Bonus Tracks] [Deluxe]

by Mumford & Sons

Overview

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. [A Deluxe version added four bonus tracks.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Product Details

Release Date:	05/04/2015
Label:	Glassnote Entertainment Group
UPC:	0810599020736
Rank:	92160

Tracks

1. Tompkins Square Park
2. Believe
3. The Wolf
4. Wilder Mind
5. Just Smoke
6. Monster
7. Snake Eyes
8. Broad-Shouldered Beasts
9. Cold Arms
10. Ditmas
11. Only Love
12. Hot Gates
13. Tompkins Square Park
14. Believe
15. The Wolf
16. Snake Eyes

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mumford & Sons   Primary Artist
Aaron Dessner   Keyboards
Doveman   Keyboards
Benjamin Lanz   Trombone
Tom Hobden   Violin
James Ford   Drums,Keyboards,Percussion
Dave Nelson   Trombone

Technical Credits

Ted Dwane   Photography,Group Member,Composer
Winston Marshall   Composer
Ben Lovett   Composer,Group Member
Laurence Anslow   Assistant Engineer
Ross Stirling   Design,Photography
Aaron Dessner   Engineer,Associate Producer
Bob Ludwig   Mastering
Robert Orton   Mixing
Jimmy Robertson   Engineer
Jonathan Low   Engineer
Mumford & Sons   Arranger,Composer
WN5TN   Group Member
George Murphy   Engineer
James Ford   Producer
Marcus Mumford   Composer,Group Member
Ty Johnson   Photography
Harrison Cargill   Additional Production
Tony Lake   Mixing