The Pelican’s Perch

Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More

Posted by Kevin
December 8, 2009

Mumford & Sons were a random find a while back that falls in the “Thank God I decided to check them out” category. There’s probably another 30 albums in my inbox that I’ll think are simply amazing, but truth is I probably won’t ever listen to them. Sad, for sure. Mumford & Sons caught a break, because I looked at the sea of emails and just clicked one randomly. I proceeded to listen to their wonderful album Sigh No More for the next two weeks pretty much non-stop.

Usually in determining an album deserves to be among the top 10 of the year, it really comes down to two factors. One, do I know a majority of the lyrics, and two, did my roommate get sick of hearing the album blaring from my room and playing in my car to the point that he gives me an “Are you serious?” every time it’s playing. Sigh No More gets a definite yes and yes to both of those. As a kid, I’d sit with albums for days straight and know every lyric and note by heart and it’s sad to think I rarely have time to do that anymore. So, I have to take note when an album gets me to listen faithfully to it like I did in the good ol days.

There’s so many stand-outs on this album I won’t write a lengthy track by track review and instead just tell you a few things I really enjoy about it. If you can imagine Glen Hansard and his Swell Season project, only way more intense both lyrically and musically, then you basically have Mumford & Sons. Songs like “Little Lion Man” and “White Blank Page” stand out as straight forward, loud, folk songs, while “I Gave You All” and “Dustbowl Dance” take the cake for slower songs that build into a few of my favorite song climaxes of the year. I think I listened to “Dustbowl Dance” on repeat every morning going to work to wake me up for a good two weeks straight. It starts off nice a slow, which fit on my morning drives because I was just waking up, but by the end when the drums kick in and everyone just goes nuts, I couldn’t help but notice my heart rate jump up and me yelling, “Hell yeah! Let’s sell some shoes!” (I work at a shoe store part time by the way on top of my record label side stuff).

I think I’d said enough to at least get you to check them out. Their sound is the complete opposite of Freelance Whales, but both should crack my top five of the year if nothing else slips in suddenly. Sigh No More is easily among the year’s best, and it’s just a shame that they’re only just starting to get noticed here in the states. I’ve done my part giving this album to anyone I even vaguely know. Bugging them until they’d finally given it a few good spins. And for the most part, everyone’s really enjoyed it. Their brand of intense folk isn’t necessarily for everyone, but it sure struck a chord with me, and I’ll say it again. Thank God I randomly stumbled upon this album.

Mumford & Sons
Sigh No More
Perch Score: 9.555/10