by The Cowl Editor on October 4, 2018
Arts & Entertainment
by: Brigid Walshe ’19 A&E Staff
The English indie/alternative rock band Mumford and Sons is back with new music, and fans all over the world are already begging for more. On Sept. 19, the band announced that they would release a new single, “Guiding Light,” the next day, along with a new album, titled Delta, on Nov. 16.
Mumford and Sons described “Guiding Light” as a “bridge between the old stuff and the new stuff.” The new song returns to their acoustic roots (with a little banjo action, of course), and has an uplifting, loving message.
The band released their first album almost 10 years ago and, since then, fans have heard their sound evolve and felt the stories that their music conveys. The last new music that Mumford and Sons released was their extended play, Johannesburg, a collection of five songs written and recorded with local artists during their tour in South Africa in 2016.
The band’s last full album was released in 2015, and a lot has happened in the lives of the band members. They have written many songs about their lives, but feel that now is the time to share specific stories in Delta. In an interview with Music Week, Frontman Marcus Mumford said, “The scale of everything in our lives seems to have got a bit bigger – certainly birth and death are much more real than they were 10 years ago–so in that way it’s felt like an ushering from shelter to something more wild.”
With the release of the new album, Mumford and Sons will embark on their Delta World Tour in 2018 through 2019, which will include a 60-date tour, playing in some of the most famous arenas around the world. The band has teased details regarding the tour, saying that they are re-imagining their version of an arena performance, and promise that it will be a new experience for all their concertgoers. They will release more specific details regarding the tour on Oct. 4.
The band is always looking for new ways to grow as musicians and artists. With this album, the band feels like they have “fulfilled so many of their artistic ambitions.” There are no more limitations and boundaries to what they can experiment with in their music, and they feel as if their creative experiments have truly succeeded in Delta.
Delta is a reflection of all that life has to give, presented in an acoustic, moving, and real way by Mumford and Sons. Even after 10 years, the band feels like they have so much left to give to their music and have no plans on retiring anytime soon.