Sunday, July 11, 2010

Mumford & Sons-Sigh No More

First up in a rundown of my favorite recent album acquisitions: Mumford and Sons' debut, "Sigh No More".

The band's been around since 2007, but this is their first full-length album (they have 3 EPs that I'm aware of, and tour pretty regularly).  The group is from London and full of multi-instrumentalists--a great way to ensure I'll be interested.  The best way to describe their music would be folk with heavy bluegrass influences, which can be picked up from their instrumentation (banjo, upright bass, mandolin, guitar, drums).

Their most well known song is probably Little Lion Man, which I've actually heard on the radio in Philly (gasp!).  It was their debut single, and also a good place to start off.  From there, I'd head over to Winter WindsThe Cave, and of course the title track Sigh No More.  But seriously? Just listen to the whole thing.  It's pretty powerful. Like, catch me singing in the car powerful.

For a more in-depth listen, check out their live set from Bonnaroo-it goes through most of the best songs from the album. It's also great to hear a band that plays complex music be able to pull it off live.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Time to change it up

This one is definitely much different than previous playlists. It's not cooperating as much as they normally do in terms of letting me preview them, so hopefully it worked out ok...  I'll also have a real post about the latest albums I absolutely love soon.