Mumford and Sons seem to have been climbing their way into hearts for quite some time now. With their new album Babel, they're back with those folk/indie sounds that fans have grown to love and expect.
The quick-strumming of the acoustic guitar propels through the opening title track, and doesn't stop after that. The sound combining with the banjo is, of course, lovely, but certainly leaves room for variation at some point throughout the album. Unfortunately, that variation never seems to happen.
Two words are prominent throughout the album: grace and choice, starting out in the title track with the line, "I believe in grace and choice." That's great and all, but perhaps we could have chosen to add a little bit of distinction with the songs, so that each one doesn't sound almost exactly like the last?
It also doesn't help that four songs on Babel exceed the five-minute mark, with a few others hot on their tail. With such long songs, it's even harder to separate one from the next.
The album isn't awful -- the themes revolving around love, death, sin and redemption are certainly lyricized well. It's just that there could be some elements of surprise thrown in, something new to add to the table. If even a few of the songs sounded different from the rest, the album could easily be a killer one. Without it though, it lies a little flat.
Check out their performance on SNL last weekend (if you haven't already):
