With a silver crystal lung

Continuing my trip back through the 2015 album charts.

17/05/15 : Wilder Mind - Mumford & Son


I've liked a couple of their earlier tracks (you know, those ones with the banjos and stuff), however I suspect this will be a case of perfectly fine but more Mumford than anyone actually needs in their lives.

Yup, this is all perfectly fine, if not exactly that Mumford sound we've come to know and tolerate - I've got nothing bad to say about anything I heard. In fact, I've got nothing to say about anything I heard because it all just slid past me and completely left me - I remember doing a bit of toe-tapping and humming along, but that's all I've got for you. I'd be tempted to try again, but I suspect the outcome would be exactly the same. It feels perfectly fine if you need that sort of thing - I'm just not clear what scenario would actually require that sort of thing.

We're at #1 in the chart this week on their second week of a somewhat incredible SIXTY SIX(!) week run - what did I miss whilst listening to this? The rest of the top five were Sam Smith, Hozier (as high as he's got in 132 weeks on the chart), Taylor and a Paul Simon best-of and the highest new entry was Eric Clapton (#8).

Wikipedia has quite a lot on the album (260 milliPeppers) but there's remarkably little content there. It tells us it's their third album and notes the "departure from the group's folk rock sound". It was produced by James Ford and Aaron Dressner, with the latter being better known for his work with Taylor and Ed these days - I suspect that man has a BIG pile of money! The critics were very mixed on the album but I liked AllMusic's comment that "the odd thing about Wilder Mind is now that everybody else sounds like Mumford & Sons, Mumford & Sons decide to sound like everybody else". Commercially it did very well, getting to #1 in a load of countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland and the US - it's sold over 500,000 copies in the US alone.

"Customers also listened to" The Lumineers, Of Monsters And Men, The Strumbellas and Kodaline - well, I've heard of half of them at least! This is an interesting album though, mostly on account of exactly how uninteresting it is and also how successful it's been. There's nothing wrong with it, but that doesn't mean there's all that much right with it either.

10/05/15 - Something of a missed opportunity
24/05/15 - Fine, but unnecessary

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