The Sons, and Their Father, Mumford

A conundrum I’ve always tried to elucidate is whether an acoustic/folk album comprised of songs that essentially sound the same is a display of the artist’s ability to produce specific, cohesive and polished music, or whether it should be seen as a disability of the artist to diversify their creativity. I’ve struggled with this quandary with practically every Jack Johnson record, the Avett Brothers, a lot of John Mayer’s music and (although I don’t at all agree with this) I’ve heard Bon Iver be criticized for it as well. I am presented with this problem most recently by the Mumford & Sons release Babel, which is their second studio album. In my opinion, both of Bon Iver’s albums are similar, but not identical in sound; their variances are easily noticeable due to the array of instruments used and definitive stylistic deviations throughout the albums. Even Jack Johnson records incorporate different methods to the point where I can readily distinguish between the individual tracks. Try as I might, though, I cannot say the same for Babel.

Although it is easy to identify one or two of the songs without looking at the track list, the majority of this album sounds almost identical. It seems as though the chords and rhythms progress without alteration throughout the entire piece. This happens not because the band fails to utilize a wide array of instruments- in any given song there can be a combination of guitar, drums, mandolin, keyboard, accordion, dobro and, of course, banjo- but because they use all of these instruments in practically every song. With the exception of “Babel,” “Ghosts That We Knew” and “Hopeless Wanderer,” it took me a substantial amount of full listens to be able to differentiate between the tracks; they simply all sound the same.

The important question lies in the significance of this resemblance. Does this mean that Babel is a weak album? Or that Mumford & Sons are only capable of creating one type of music? In my opinion, the answer is definitely no to the first question, and for the most part no to the second. Babel is undeniably an impressive record; despite this flaw the songs all still sound marvelous. In an “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, I don’t mind listening to songs that sound similar as long as I still enjoy listening to them. I particularly appreciate this music while studying as it drowns out any disruptive, outside noise but changes so minimally that it does not distract my focus away from the work. As to the second question, I think it is important to clarify that although Mumford & Sons have only ever produced stylistically similar music, this does not mean they are not talented artists or that they are only capable of composing a single genre of music. It just means they know what they are good at and have become extremely successful within that category. Granted, it is more impressive when artists show some sort of growth and development, but as this is only the band’s second album I think there is still potential for this maturation. In any case, as long as it continues to sound as fantastic as this piece, I’ll keep listening to anything they produce. The magic of this music is that it never gets old- I will always have a hunger for some soothing folk, bluegrassy tunes to accompany me in the library.