Sigh No More - Mumford & Sons
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Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critics What's this?

User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 140 Ratings

  • Summary: Produced by Markus Dravs, the debut album for the folk rock quartet went platinum in the UK.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 18
  2. Negative: 1 out of 18
  1. This is an album that knocks you over at first. But when you gather yourself, get back on your feet and listen again, you'll want to hit the play button a second time.
  2. Surprisingly complex and unexpectedly mature for a group of early twentysomethings, it's more often that their post-"O Brother Where Art Thou" sexy banjoing brings the surprises. [Winter 2010, p.64]
  3. 60
    Their accomplished bluegrass, folk and country hybrid expresses the heartache familiar to fans of Will Oldham and Damien Rice. [Nov 2009, p.94]
  4. Every hoedown on Sigh No More-- every rush of instruments in rhythmic and melodic lockstep-- conveys the same sense of hollow, self-aggrandizing drama.

See all 18 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 45
  2. Negative: 6 out of 45
  1. AdamL.
    10
    Best album of 2009. Amazing, raw, beautiful. So good. This album honestly blows me away every time I hear it.
  2. TimJ
    8
    What's wrong with the folks at Pitchfork? I don't think I've ever read a more shallow review of a record. For instance, how does "Fleet Foxes style harmonies" register as a negative quality? That is one of many things about that review that boggles my mind. I think their disdain for it has far more to do with it's popularity (and the way they like to disdain popular things) than it does with the quality of music making on the record. Expand
  3. Well enchained melodies constituted this record of Mr. Mumford and his sons. A dramatic air of country, bluegrass, folk and even celta is breathed with gladness, though I would say the first half of the record owns the best aroma, in particular the track "I gave you all", with an expectant intro and stunning ending. Mr. Mumford's voice is like a ring to the finger. It wears perfectly to the banjo, mandolin, piano and well-stationed lyrics. A record that deserves to be listened to. Expand
  4. I'm sorry but I've gotta go along with Pitchfork on this one. It has one song that sticks, I guess for lyrical/personal/whatever reasons. ("I Gave You All." I freakin' love that song.) But the aesthetic from one song to the next is *identical.*

    I'm not saying that they don't have a certain knack for building up the tempo to a cacophony and letting Marcus Mumford's voice ride the instruments like a wave. They're not half bad at it. But they aren't exactly the best there's ever been, yet they do it on EVERY SONG. On a contemporary level, Arcade Fire and The Decemberists easily have them beat at that. What makes those bands as good as they are (or great, in Arcade Fire's case) is that they don't copy this formula on every song. They show off their wealth of other talents.

    When you can do something pretty-well-but-not-great, as M&S do with their folk anthemic climaxes, you should think about switching it up and writing a new song once in a while. And P4k, I'm sad to say, is spot on. When every song has the exact same formula, the album as a whole starts to sound disingenuous and I become totally disconnected with it. Imagine if Fleet Foxes had used the wordless chorus-double verse-A Capella 3-4-part harmonies on EVERY song on Sun Giant as they did with Mykonos. It would've been horrible, and a real slight to the genre of folk rock.

    I'm not going to say that this isn't a good band. (Yet.) If they could chill on the soft-loud formula like some sort of folk rock Nirvana, maybe use it on one or two songs in an album, and use the rest of the space for--I dunno--something else, I can hear what they're made of.
    Expand

See all 45 User Reviews