Mumford and Sons

you always do that when spurs win

i mean 'there will always be exceptions' like tinie etc but it does seem worse than usual/ever rite now

English pop music is shit at the moment more as a result of production trends than anything else. If and when the world moves on from "whack in a big Phil Collins sample with filter-disco keyboards" we might suddenly see them coming with something amazing.

not sure how that relates to / explains the mumford debacle

MC Mumford and the Dubstep Sons

tinie still only has one and a half good tracks

i don't really like US pop these days either tho (in the charts i do like 'lights on', 'rolling in the deep' and maybe that latest chase & status thing at a push tho uk-wise)

Had a really annoying Grammys experience thinking that I could listen to Archer of Loaf (All the Nations Airports) while watching with the sound off. But my (American) girlfriend asked me if I liked Mumford, so we turned the volume up. See, she likes it. I think a huge number of people do (obv., no 1 itunes etc). It hits a lot of right buttons for people: a bit different, a bit "real music," a bit "live and crescendo," lyrics that sound like they mean something, a bit of mystery somehow (even the name, for Americans). I imagine, even, that Americans bedazzled by Grammys see this as somehow "Irish music" - with its real guys in a hub sweating and getting carried away with the musicality of it all. There's no much "art" in it, more "soul" - hence Mumford getting a great boost after these awards, and Arcade Fire very little at all.

english pop music is shit

― the philosopher named after a whiskey (nakhchivan), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:25 (24 minutes ago)

Yeah, I'm listening to Tasmin Archer and weeping.

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 16 February 2011 00:26 (23 minutes ago)

Don't blame this sleeping satellite (of Europe)

I hate myself for reading the evangelical Xian background thing as explanatory of why they suck so much massive balls but reading that tonight made total sense. The worst sub-Waterboys bullshit I've ever heard.

Can't help thinking that if Chris Martin and Thom Yorke had just manned the fuck up a little a few years ago, then a dangerous precedent would not have been set and we'd have avoided all this.

disagree-- they've been a poor influences on other genres, sure, but this irish folk-rock bullshit doesn't really cop from coldplay, of all things. btw, mumford & sons makes coldplay sound like fuckin peter gabriel-era genesis, dead serious

From Twitter

@WadeyWade Ian Wade
EXCLUSIVE MUMFORD FOOTAGE OF SECOND ALBUM SESSIONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCusJRcbhEo&feature=related

^^^ JUST SOUNDS LIKE THAT IRISH MUSIC MATE

srsly guys Diddly-Aye-Di-Doh not the soul province of Ireland, Scumford sound like a shit version of the Wurzels if anything.

that's connaught iirc

Much to my chagrin, nearly every single one of my wife's friends has cornered me during social events to say something along the lines of, "I know you are into music, you would love Mumford & Sons! They are amazing!". Gah.

One of my best friends was the same at Glastonbury last year. "How can you not like Mumford & Sons?" he said, genuinely incredulous. So I drowned him in a portaloo.

Bonus points if it was the Manics private one.

So I drowned him in a portaloo.

sadly if we did this to every mumford fans, we would lose millions of ppl

WHY IS THIS BAND GOOD

I would dearly love to hear Nicky Wire on the subject of Mumford & Sons. Geoff Barrow's not a fan:

http://twitter.com/#!/jetfury

really?? i would've pegged geoff as a superfan, that's surprising!

I heard these on Radio 4 the other week. Much talk of their diverse influences and all the different instruments they use/d blablabla, some mini interview w the singer, very boring and non-consequential. Because I like the name of the band (it wd be an awesome name for an ivor cutleresque band i think) I listened carefully when they played some of the music, I hoped it would be good. What i heard reminded me of many support bands I have seen in the past, especially around the time the waterboys were big. You'd see an acoustic guitar and a fiddle carried on to the stage and your heart would sink, oh no, god, THIS trash again. I could not remember the tune of the Mumford piece, it was like it erased itself from my brain as it passed, leaving a vague memory of a drab, somewhat folksy sound.

In some way, they remind me of The Darkness, in that I have seen many bands who sound like "that", some who do a better job, even, so why is this lot big? I don't get it.

Marketing and God.

(Which should be the name of their next album.)

I hope this is not perceived as sexist, but it's my impression that most of the people who are crazy about this sort of thing are women. I've always wondered why. Am I right?

I saw them live at a festival last year and their appeal (though not to me) was suddenly really obvious - folky instrumentation + rootsy image + soaring Coldplayesque arena-rock melodies + vaguely religious intensity = £££

Raggle-Taggle and Hum

I understand the appeal of Coldplayesque arena-rock melodies + vaguely religious intensity, but what's so appealing about "folky instrumentation + rootsy image"? This is not a rhetorical question. I am genuinely curious. It is such a turn off for me.

I hope this is not perceived as sexist, but it's my impression that most of the people who are crazy about this sort of thing are women. I've always wondered why. Am I right?

even their male fans have womanly characteristics iirc (ex: Ned's hair)

lol

You're a sick man.

xpost They seem to satisfy some craving for rural authenticity that I didn't even realise was there. What to me is a hindrance - the fact they look like they're playing a harvest fair or going on a grouse shoot - is to many people a huge asset. Don't ask me why this appeals at a time when the country is being shafted by people very much like them. At least the Levellers had some counterculture cachet.

Which is why only dirty smelly hippies liked the Levs but Scumford have clean-cut mass appeal

xpost -- Logical conclusion of all the handcraft/of the earth/'real things' hoohah over the past few years. Basically you've got all these people who want the 19th century plus penicillin.

huge loooool @ harvest fair/grouse shoot comment, so otm

They have the same appeal as Innocent Smoothies and the Abel & Cole organic delivery box.

Thought this line from HMV rep Gennaro Castaldo re: their post-Brits sales boost had it about right:

"With their distinctive sound, Mumford and Sons may already be firm favourites with students and with much of Middle England, but this success will now help cement their appeal with an even broader audience."

Sorry, I just died of boredom while reading that, can you resend via an Ouija board?

I have a feeling that this band is going to be the next Coldplay (in terms of popularity). I don't know if I'll be able to take that; going into a random store, coffee shop, whatevs and listen to it in the background. I tolerated Coldplay; M&S make me want to destroy things. :(

at least Coldplay had the good sense to use a Kraftwerk melody and kinda-sorta rip off Echo & the Bunnymen and '80s U2 at times. there is not one good thing about Mumford & Sons that i can think of

Eno wouldn't touch Mumford and Sons with a fucking bargepole.

don't speak too soon

here come the lukewarm jets

I don't get at all what it is people like about them either. What I see in them is a bundle of signifiers of authenticity - none of which come off quite right, be it the folkiness, the clothes, the intensity, it's all a bit off in various directions and thus a bit repulsive, a particularly inauthentic and ugly take on 'authenticity' - but I guess it's a surprise to me that this (bad illusion of) authenticity was something people so desired.

honestly i'm not sure the folkiness & dumb outfits & irish jigs come off as "authentic" -- i mean, it's almost decemberists-like, and those guys are basically doing music that would soundtrack a high school drama club production -- very un-authentic, right?

I know I could just go to youtube or something and find out - but you all amke them sound so bad I can't bring myself to do it. Do they sound like The Hothouse Flowers?

At this point I'm waiting to see if anyone leaps to their defense or if they remain one of the rare universally loathed by ILM bands.

Too soon for a 'Defend the Indefensible'?

“little lion man” = student disco anthem right now :( Everyone thinks theyre irish too! We have enough shite already, thanks.

all I know is that headbanging while playing banjo should be grounds for immediate dismissal from the Musician's Union. i kept hoping one of those giant vaudeville canes would pull them all off-stage during the Grammys performance

I mean there is a dude in this band that wears a trucker hat in 2011 for major television appearances.

Too soon for a 'Defend the Indefensible'?

looking fwd to TS: Mumford & Sons vs. Creed poll in a few weeks as well

id go for Creed. "arms wide open" is a decent power ballad.

creed is a band rich with lolz. mumford, not so much ... yet?

If we ever get a Mumford equivalent of a "311, I am ready to fight you" moment, then maybe it will be a close vote.