Mumford and Sons

literary influences = your assigned high school reading

Literary influences

Much of Mumford & Sons' lyrical content has a strong literary influence, their debut album name deriving from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The track, "Sigh No More" includes lines from the play such as Serve God love me and mend and One foot in sea and one on shore. Their song "Roll Away Your Stone" also is influenced by Macbeth.

Many of the songs on "Sigh No More" and the title of the album itself are inspired by other authors' works. "You can rip off Shakespeare all you like; no lawyer's going to call you up on that one," Mumford said in an interview.[17]

Both "Timshel" and "Dust Bowl Dance" draw heavily from the John Steinbeck novels "East of Eden" and "Grapes of Wrath" respectively. Mumford in an interview even compares touring to a Steinbeck adventure. "[Steinbeck] talked about how a journey is a thing of its own, and you can't plan it or predict it too much because that suffocates the life out it. That's kind of what touring is like. Even though there's a structure — you know what towns you're going to, and that you'll be playing a gig — pretty much anything can happen." Mumford also in his spare time runs an online book club on the band's official web site.[18]

yeah basically this is all we listen to here sry

They're like if Jedward were quads who made indie folk emo.

i actually liked these guys for a short bit last year then got tired of them fast. think i even voted for the album on 09 ilx poll, smh...

like, the lyrics are abysmal and the style is an uncomfortable appropriation but at least there are hooks there and they use dynamics better than most popular bands

for those that don't follow The Fall thread:

The Fall's Mark E Smith was apparently involved in an altercation with dire banjo wielding troupe Mumford & Sons at an Irish festival earlier this year. In an interview with the Australian magazine Brag Smith complained that The Fall's increasing popularity at festivals means they're forced to meet new bands who are often "ass lickers". Even worse, some of them are Mumford & Sons.

"We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. I said 'shut them cunts up' and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The bands said 'that's the Sons of Mumford' or something, 'they're number five in charts!' I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers."

<3

"a load of retarded Irish folk singers" is one for the hall of fame

These are one of those bands that, like Airborne Toxic Event, I recognized on the radio based solely on people's objections.

Was just about to link that Mark E Smith story. Love him so much for that. Mumford are the worst.

god, THESE GUYS ARE TERRIBLE

Before 'Funeral', there was just a big nuthin'

i will say that i like them and that i hate myself for it

hahah that kind of does not surprise me

Every kid I know between the ages of like 16 and 25 thinks Mumford & Sons is like the best band on earth right now.

They are already bigger than I think most folks itt realize -- selling out large venues just about everywhere they go, etc. -- and they're gonna get even bigger.

I do enjoy a spin of "Little Lion Man" every once in a while, but generally the album is a snooze.

Every kid I know between the ages of like 16 and 25 thinks Mumford & Sons is like the best band on earth right now

GTFO of Surrey imo

Can't think of a more appropriate Biggest Band In Cameron's Britain tbh.

Kunt and the Gang, obv.

I noticed the Mumford phenomenon in full force at Bestival - hordes of sixth-formers and university students in Jack Wills gear, all with exactly the same Home Counties accent. They went absolutely apeshit but in a way that makes me think they'll look back in five years and wonder what they were so excited about, cf the Levellers 20 years earlier. At least the Levellers represented some kind of counterculture rather than the harvest fair-attending, Archers-loving, posh welly-wearing, Abel & Cole-eating, Magners-drinking, coalition-voting Middle England of the Mumfords.

When I wrote something about indie and class some people retorted "it's not where you're from it's where you're at" but my problem with the Mumfords is that where they're at is EXACTLY where they're from. Their music is their upbringing writ large.

you could have stopped at Bestival tbh

I noticed the Mumford phenomenon in full force at Bestival - hordes of sixth-formers and university students in Jack Wills gear, all with exactly the same Home Counties accent. They went absolutely apeshit but in a way that makes me think they'll look back in five years and wonder what they were so excited about, cf the Levellers 20 years earlier. At least the Levellers represented some kind of counterculture rather than the harvest fair-attending, Archers-loving, posh welly-wearing, Abel & Cole-eating, Magners-drinking, coalition-voting Middle England of the Mumfords.

― The baby boomers have defined everything once and for all (Dorianlynskey), Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:37 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't understand this post, but i did enjoy it

Forgot the Innocent Smoothies but Dorian otm

Divided Britain innit, the two biggest-selling genres at the moment are pop-grime and indie-folk by the looks of things.

They are already bigger than I think most folks itt realize

when I catch 3 dudes hosanning a nu english folk group in a suburban liquor store in rhode island USA, they're pretty big

But Why?

Same reason inauthentic folksy shit is popular anywhere - see also Irish pubs, Tom Cruise in Far & Away.

like it or not they've transcended the niche tho

damn i remember the track of theirs someone posted in cultural pessimism thread

new lows for england

I'm just chalking it up to another sign of god's neglect

like it or not they've transcended the niche tho

My Question was in relation to this.

neglect would beget merely entropy

mumford suggests some sort of deliberate malefaction

Little Lion Man seems like a Pogues song minus Shane MacGowan. ie. a terrible Pogues song

So, basically Mumford & Sons is to the UK what Kings of Leon is to the US: one day you wake up, and they're filling stadiums. (Except, of course, that that the UK was suckered in by KoL, too, long before the US).

looking forward to the burgeoning of Mumford and Sons tribute acts.

there's nothing Irish about Mumford and Sons, don't drag us into your problem ffs. Next you'll be trying to claim Northern Ireland is part of the Republic.

talk to the MES cuz the ILX isn't sayin

Xtians are getting behind this?! There's a F-word right in the middle of "High and Dry""Little Lion Man"!

That's known in the trade as "doing a You're Beautiful" - deploying an F-word in order to add a slight frisson of "unpredictability" to an otherwise MOR song.

maybe this band is awesome but we just can't handle their deep emotional honesty and intensity.

http://crispinschroeder.blogspot.com/2010/06/musings-on-mumford-and-sons-and.html

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, January 19, 2011 6:35 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

As the first song ended I was amazed at how connected I felt to God and to the others in the room of this club I had never been to listening to a band I had never heard. The concert continued in this vein until the encore a little over an hour later. This was not a typical concert by any means. There were so many moments of transcendence where the veil of the ordinary gig in a club were shattered and we came singing together into a larger place where our hearts were opened to something greater.

Earlier that evening I had sung worship songs with a room full of Vineyard pastors but in that dive bar in south Phoenix I was again worshipping to songs I had yet to learn. I left the concert that night feeling as if I had encountered God. I don’t say this because the music was so good or the band-members so skilled but because the music and the lyrics pointed beyond the gig to another place not so far a way and to another person who loves us without measure.

Sadly, I don't love that guy beyond measure, but I thank him for trying.

which ilx poster has the most hatred for mumford and sons?

But Why?

― Mark G, Thursday, January 20, 2011 11:34 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

they may have folksy instrumentation but their songs are basically arena-rock songs, with the build-up-to-a-big-moment dynamics, slick & thick production, unadorned diatonic harmony, and confessional lyrics sung in an exaggerated way

it's a formula that has always had wide appeal for its immediacy, and i suppose maybe the folk arragements magnify it to some people who don't actually listen to folk music or bluegrass music etc, and see that as eclectic or a change of pace

i do kinda like them still tbh

Alice likes them, I'm like "um, that's the sort of thing I should be more into than you!"

Via 'Questions' on my Facebook feed:

Have you heard of Mumford & Sons? They are amazing.

Argh.

Ouch.

As the first song ended I was amazed at how connected I felt to God and to the others in the room of this club I had never been to listening to a band I had never heard. The concert continued in this vein until the encore a little over an hour later. This was not a typical concert by any means. There were so many moments of transcendence where the veil of the ordinary gig in a club were shattered and we came singing together into a larger place where our hearts were opened to something greater.

Earlier that evening I had sung worship songs with a room full of Vineyard pastors but in that dive bar in south Phoenix I was again worshipping to songs I had yet to learn. I left the concert that night feeling as if I had encountered God. I don’t say this because the music was so good or the band-members so skilled but because the music and the lyrics pointed beyond the gig to another place not so far a way and to another person who loves us without measure.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, January 19, 2011 6:35 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark

I've seen the light. (And dry-heaved.)

thank u for the testimonial ned it has renewed my faith in mumford & sons & god

oh dear

Faith and What Makes You Beautiful on an acoustic guitar, always the sound of a taxi being phoned at a party for me

George Michael and One Direction?

yes

Apparently he's been booted out of the band now, or was a day ago but nobody noticed until now.

pic.twitter.com/x9yddYc0g9

— Winston Marshall (@MrWinMarshall) March 10, 2021

they're gonna have to find another banjo player with a goofy haircut... could take hours...

i note his twitter following has doubled since this all blew up. so many of these fuckers out there.

judging by the replies to his tweet, his new followers are furious at him

the commercial calculation must be that this shit still alienates more potential fans than it brings in new fans, which is good news I guess?

His new followers are unlikely to actually buy records/gig tickets or do anything other than tweet/retweet

Remember all those new diehard Ariel Pink fans?

from 2010? kinda

lol at this guy getting fucked out

i remember him making some video where he was being pretty anti-Irish, not surprised that a member of this band held these views and was stupid enough to share them.

not much to say about this except "lol fuck off then"

https://mrwinstonmarshall.medium.com/why-im-leaving-mumford-sons-e6e731bbc255

Or “*farts*”.

what the fuck is he even talking about?

poor little Gelfling

"I could self-censor ... but ..."

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi0y_xnFVCN/

^^^ CW: photo including Jordan Peterson

Wow how sad. Wait no it isn't.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mumford-sons-member-winston-marshall-condemned-by-artists-181504226.html

Saw a friend say on Twitter that his dad is a financer of GBNews.

Also he's clearly a fash-loving twat, as is Bari Weiss and all the other free speech/cancel culture bullshitters who stan for him.