Albums to watch

Wilder Mind

Mumford & Sons

Wilder Mind

A rockier third album from the London alt-folk quartet produced by Simian Mobile Disco's James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Haim, Florence and the Machine)

ADM rating[?]

5.4

Label
Glassnote
UK Release date
04/05/2015
US Release date
05/05/2015
  1. 8.0 |   The Independent

    Out go the banjos, accordions and acoustic guitars, in favour of Winston Marshall’s surging electric guitar riffs and Ben Lovett’s synth and organ textures, while the simple kickdrum and footstomp beats are replaced by more propulsive drumming from Marcus Mumford
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  2. 8.0 |   NME

    Out go the banjos, in come rock licks and big melodies on the quartet's rousing third album
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  3. 8.0 |   Q

    This is a record marked by its elegance, pace and excitement; the sound of a band hungry to become something new. Print edition only

  4. 8.0 |   State

    What Wilder Mind emphatically showcases is that there is a living, breathing band beneath the buskers’ facade which carried them to success originally
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  5. 8.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    This is a new blueprint, and Mumford & Sons have emerged a fuller force
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  6. 7.0 |   Rolling Stone

    Even amid all the new sounds on Wilder Mind, the impassioned earnestness that made Mumford & Sons stars is still their driving force
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  7. 7.0 |   The Digital Fix

    They’re an easy target, and in many respects this is all very obvious, but there’s no doubt that Wilder Mind will launch Marcus and pals into the stratosphere with populist aplomb
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  8. 6.7 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Expecting the group to remain locked into a specific, acoustic-driven style is like expecting a Dave Matthews fan to still wear puka shells and Birks; but, for a solitary, fleeting instance, you wish they’d just dust off that damn banjo
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  9. 6.5 |   The 405

    The honest truth is this; whilst Wilder Mind is not very good, it's really not as bad as you want it to be
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  10. 6.0 |   Beardfood

    This is an expanding of horizons. Unfortunately, Wilder Mind is incredibly up and down
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  11. 6.0 |   God Is In The TV

    The majority of their new songs still possess the capability to be concert anthems, provoke sing-a-longs with comprehensible lyrics aided by unified harmonies
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  12. 6.0 |   Under The Radar

    As big and perhaps unanticipated an adjustment as it is, however, Wilder Mind then deepens and improves with each consecutive listen
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  13. 6.0 |   The Observer

    Wilder Mind will only make Mumford & Sons more enormous. Mercifully, it has also significantly improved them as a band
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  14. 6.0 |   The Arts Desk

    It's as adult-orientated rockers that Mumford and Sons have found their niche
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  15. 6.0 |   Digital Spy

    A band evolving in a way nobody saw coming. The results so far have their flaws, but straight-up rock is a rigid beast and one that might take until the next album to crack
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  16. 6.0 |   The Music

    The group has made a logical step in their sound, toeing the very easily trampled line between well written modern music and ‘just another boring indie album’. Wilder Mind is certainly the former
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  17. 5.0 |   Uncut

    The London four-piece re-establish themselves at the dog-end of Americana. Print edition only

  18. 5.0 |   Slant Magazine

    Whatever one felt about the banjos and suspenders, that version of Mumford & Sons at least conjured an opinion. Wilder Mind may be something altogether worse than divisive: unremarkable
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  19. 5.0 |   A.V. Club

    With Wilder Mind, Mumford & Sons have morphed from a band that’s easy to either love or hate into a band that’s hard to care much about at all
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  20. 5.0 |   All Music

    Wilder Mind is the same Mumford & Sons, peddling reasonably handsome reconstructions of times gone by
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  21. 5.0 |   Spin

    Wilder Mind will undoubtedly end up serving as sufficiently thoughtless comfort food for a whole new demographic
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  22. 5.0 |   Sputnik Music (staff)

    Wilder Mind ends up being a well-intended push for change that falters mightily
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  23. 4.0 |   musicOMH

    They’ve produced the most crushingly average album of the year so far
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  24. 4.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    The difference between M&S and, say, the comparatively hated Coldplay is longevity
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  25. 4.0 |   The FT

    The instrumentation has altered — but the band’s songwriting formula remains unchanged
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  26. 4.0 |   The Guardian

    You can understand a desire to change, to demonstrate that there’s more to them than fans and detractors alike previously thought, but you listen to Believe or The Wolf and think: who’s going to be “freaked out” by this? Someone who’s never heard Snow Patrol?
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  27. 4.0 |   Mojo

    Far from electrifying. Print edition only

  28. 3.0 |   PopMatters

    With each successive album, Mumford & Sons have picked at their own seams, resulting in the slog that is Wilder Mind, which reveals them for the well-dressed automatons that they are
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  29. 3.0 |   No Ripcord

    See review
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  30. 2.0 |   Pitchfork

    12 variations on vaguely Don Henley-inspired arena schlock, and in this transition, they've found a new bottom
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  31. 1.7 |   Pretty Much Amazing

    Wilder Mind, airless to the extreme, plods on, song after saccharine song
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