So I decided...Mumford & Sons

First thing’s first – I’ll credit A with introducing me to The Hype Machine, a great music blog for discovering new and eclectic material. Over the past two weeks, I’ve curbed my Pandora usage to exploit the availability of full album listening for 2009’s Top 50 on the blog. You mean I can just click here and listen a whole album? All of it? For free? Don’t mind if I do… 

While most of the artists I ran into on the list were at least somewhat familiar, I definitely ran into some gems that flew under my radar this year. Of course, the Top 10 were the heavy hitters: Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, Dirty Projectors, The XX, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, Antlers, Fever Ray and Girls. This week, though, my material is coming from the guys in the number 50 spot: Mumford & Sons. Dead last. Hadn’t heard of them. Love at first listen. 

The guys have been together only since late 2007, released some of their first singles in mid-2008 and, finally, released their debut in October of 2009. They were lucky enough to produce Sigh No More with Markus Dravs, who has worked with the likes of Coldplay, The Arcade Fire and Bjork.

Favorite tracks: “Sigh No More” and “The Cave”. Although, I’ve listened to the whole album without skipping tracks about a bajillion times now. That says a lot, for me, about both the cohesiveness of the album and the quality of individual songs. I really enjoy the clever reference to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing in “Sign No More” and it offers a remarkably soulful opening. I can’t put my finger on why I like “The Cave” so much, but I do. So there. For something dark, try “Dustbowl Dance” – one line says “You will pray to the God you always denied/And I’ll go out back and I’ll get my gun…” Enough said. 

If you check these guys out and like them, I also suggest Fleet Foxes. I don’t know who is actually reading this, but I’m sure you all are tired of me picking music with banjos (judge if you want, but I like it). So, for next week I’ve got something different in mind to waste my breath about…