“Believe”– Mumford and Sons

After the success of 2012’s Babel, Mumford and Sons announced that they would take a “considerable amount of time off” in 2013. They lied. Three months after their hiatus, they went back to the studio and started experimenting with what is now 2015’s Wilder Mind.

“Believe,” our first look at Wilder Mind, opens with layered electric strings that resemble the shoegaze introduction of M83’s My Tears are Becoming a Sea. Returning their banjo, piano, acoustic guitar, double bass, horns, leather oxfords, and rustic countryside vests at the local old-timey general store, Mumford and Sons do the unexpected and instead pick up *gasp* a drum kit and electric guitars.

Since Babel, Mumford and Sons has experienced more than a instrumental split; two members have gotten married while the other two members have ended recent relationships. With their new single, Mumford and Sons explore happiness, heartbreak, and rediscovery as they begin again in a different direction, while maintaining the same spirit of 2009’s Sigh No More and 2012’s Babel.

Swapping the suede three-piece suits for leather jackets and long trimmed peacoats, Mumford and Sons broaden their sound by reducing the banjo and double bass thumping choruses and adding space to their vocabulary. “Believe” was written with musical space in mind, along the lines of Radiohead and Fleetwood Mac, favourites of Mumford and Sons.

After taking some time and getting some space, Mumford and Sons delivers with “Believe”. But you’ll have to wait a little longer before you can see exactly how much Mumford went electric, as Wilder Mind will be released on May 4th. I believe this video should tide you over until then.

Author

  • Ariel Chu

    Ariel Chu is a really bad long term planner, a fan of the eat-sleep-rinse-repeat doctrine of life, and an aspiring professional couch potato. She's a freshman in the College, studying engineering and art, and one day, she hopes she can make a van go.

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