Mumford & Sons – Love Your Ground EP

Another week, another member of the Laura Marling / Noah and The Whale / South Coast collective / London Alt-Folk / Nu-Folk / Roots Revival gang rustling up a new release. With this roots-folk-revival ploughing along, full-steam ahead, it can sometimes feel as though all these artists are merging into one. Reading about Mumford & Sons recently it was hard to get excited about another addition to this ever growing list. So, if you've got this far in the review and you've not sneaked a look at the score at the end already, you're thinking this is only going to go one way. But you'd be wrong. What we have here is a voice. A singular and gruff voice that brings to the fore age old depths, a voice which seems to ache despair. After listening to the countless other folk-revivalists, it's this voice that stands out from the rest. There's an element of darkness, none of the saccharine sweetness of Noah, or the floating butterflies of Marling. Whilst their music might touch all bases between folk, bluegrass, rock and, indeed, roll, it's Marcus Mumford's voice that drags it out of the dirge.'Hold On To What You Believe' is the standout track here. The gentle intro grows and swells into a thunderous chorus, sending ripples out from its core like a lightning storm on a dark day. It might not be fashionable to say so, but it brings to mind The Waterboys and it's "big sound". Another band that also walked the line between roots music and modern rock 'n roll.These four tracks hint at greatness, for the simple fact that more banjo needs to be heard in modern music. There have been some comparisons to these guys being the "British Beruit", their live shows featuring a whole hosts of instruments and musical influences that break free of the country of their birth. That might not come across on this EP until the final track, 'The Banjolin Song', but it's a useful pointer to where these guys can take it next - if they want to, of course.