Mumford and Sons = worship music? Not really. You'd be pretty hard pressed to find any online connection between English epic bluegrass band Mumford and Sons and the concept of sacred music. Sunday morning worship this is not. Yet since being turned onto these guys, it's proving to be quite tough to frankly not keep hitting repeat on my MP3 player. They are that good. I like music. OK, I love music. And these guys are something special.
This is how I heard about them: I was sat in my office chatting to my mate Andrew about the duo, The Swell Season, when he told me to check out "Mumford & Sons". "This is my kind of worship music" he said. Another mate of mine, Phil, a few weeks before had mentioned Mumford & Sons to me. Funny thing is that both these boys are in their early twenties and struggling with where it is they fit in the Church. Yet they both dig Mumford & Sons, and to me (as Andrew), Mumford & Sons do worship music. Just read some of the select lyrics below:
Roll away your stone
Cause you told me that I would find a hole,
Within the fragile substance of my soul
And I have filled this void with things unreal,
And all the while my character it steals
Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
But you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart
Stars hide your fires,
These here are my desires
And I won't give them up to you this time around
And so, I’ll be found with my stake stuck in this ground
Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul
Sigh no more
Love it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment, a cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be
Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry
Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea and one on shore
My heart was never pure
And you know me
You know me
The Cave
Cause I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I'll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind
So tie me to a post and block my ears
I can see widows and orphans through my tears
I know my call despite my faults
And despite my growing fears
As you can probably tell, this isn't worship music in the traditional sense. It's a totally different animal to what we sing on a Sunday morning. I doubt you will ever hear Mumford & Sons call their epic songs "worship music". Yet to me, that's exactly what it is. Perhaps I'm taking it personally, but the boys in the band seem almost willful in their determination not to allow anyone to pigeon hole them or lay claim to them. Take the song, "Little Lion Man" for instance. One of the best songs on the album, yet many church goers would write off the whole album on account of this song. Why? Because of the repeated, emotionally-fraught and powerful repetition of a "cuss" word throughout the song. Could they have replaced it with a different word? Probably. Why didn't they? No idea. I'm just a little more careful that I otherwise would have been in who I recommend this album to.
As that being said, I would heartily recommend this album. It's powerful, it's fresh, it's melodic and harmonic, it's anthemic and tender, it's emotional, it's filled with good truth (packaged more poetically than most of the prosaic truth w're used to hearing), it's stirring and moving, it's bluegrass + folk played with the energy of rockers.
You will just have to decide whether to skip over, or listen to, track 7.
This is how I heard about them: I was sat in my office chatting to my mate Andrew about the duo, The Swell Season, when he told me to check out "Mumford & Sons". "This is my kind of worship music" he said. Another mate of mine, Phil, a few weeks before had mentioned Mumford & Sons to me. Funny thing is that both these boys are in their early twenties and struggling with where it is they fit in the Church. Yet they both dig Mumford & Sons, and to me (as Andrew), Mumford & Sons do worship music. Just read some of the select lyrics below:
Roll away your stone
Cause you told me that I would find a hole,
Within the fragile substance of my soul
And I have filled this void with things unreal,
And all the while my character it steals
Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
It seems that all my bridges have been burned,
But you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works
It’s not the long walk home that will change this heart,
But the welcome I receive with the restart
Stars hide your fires,
These here are my desires
And I won't give them up to you this time around
And so, I’ll be found with my stake stuck in this ground
Marking the territory of this newly impassioned soul
Sigh no more
Love it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment, a cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be
Serve God, love me and mend
This is not the end
Lived unbruised, we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry
Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea and one on shore
My heart was never pure
And you know me
You know me
The Cave
Cause I have other things to fill my time
You take what is yours and I'll take mine
Now let me at the truth
Which will refresh my broken mind
So tie me to a post and block my ears
I can see widows and orphans through my tears
I know my call despite my faults
And despite my growing fears
As you can probably tell, this isn't worship music in the traditional sense. It's a totally different animal to what we sing on a Sunday morning. I doubt you will ever hear Mumford & Sons call their epic songs "worship music". Yet to me, that's exactly what it is. Perhaps I'm taking it personally, but the boys in the band seem almost willful in their determination not to allow anyone to pigeon hole them or lay claim to them. Take the song, "Little Lion Man" for instance. One of the best songs on the album, yet many church goers would write off the whole album on account of this song. Why? Because of the repeated, emotionally-fraught and powerful repetition of a "cuss" word throughout the song. Could they have replaced it with a different word? Probably. Why didn't they? No idea. I'm just a little more careful that I otherwise would have been in who I recommend this album to.
As that being said, I would heartily recommend this album. It's powerful, it's fresh, it's melodic and harmonic, it's anthemic and tender, it's emotional, it's filled with good truth (packaged more poetically than most of the prosaic truth w're used to hearing), it's stirring and moving, it's bluegrass + folk played with the energy of rockers.
You will just have to decide whether to skip over, or listen to, track 7.