Mumford & Sons - The Wolf review • DIY Magazine

The unofficial tagline of Mumford & Son’s third album ‘Wilder Mind’ is fast becoming “bye bye, banjos”. Over the last few years the humble string instrument has become something of a signifier for the band, and despite their massive fanbase they’ve courted a lot of flack for it along the way from a vocal lobbying group. Now Mumford & Sons say that they’re leaving those banjos behind, locking them up, and setting off for new musical horizons.

Previous single ‘Believe’ held fast to that promise, amping up the guitars, blowing the haybales with hurricane force out of the barn dance, and yep.. banishing those banjos to a distant shire to start up fledgling careers as dairy farmers. The manifestation of Mumford & Sons that emerged was more confident, shooting skywards with ever larger hooks custom-designed for howling in unison, by crowds of thousands. If ‘Believe’ showed hints and glimpses of visible ambition, follow-up ‘The Wolf’ confirms it in rampaging and stadium-ready style, bee-lining with unflappable pace towards yet another stratospheric chorus.

“You were all I ever longed for,” cries Marcus Mumford, before - of all things to expect - a guitar solo comes hurtling into view. Folklore and fables are still at the centre, lyrically, but there’s a new hunger baying at their heels. ‘The Wolf’ probably won’t sway the core group of Mumford-haters; but really, nothing short of an international ban on banjos would achieve that feat. All those inbetweeners and fence-sitters, though? They might just get carried up in the slipstream of ‘The Wolf’ and blown right over into camp Mumford.

Tags: Mumford & Sons, Reviews, Listen