Lying heavy in your lover’s arms. Four-on-the-floor kick drum. Multi-part harmonies. Rolling banjo and vocal break-down.
Mumford & Sons songs may be predictable, but they are distinctly reliable. “I Will Wait” is the first official recording to arrive from the British roots-based group’s forthcoming album “Babel,” and it undeniably Mumfordian. And it will tickle the band’s fans to death.
Marcus Mumford’s lyrics contain a romanticism and fatalism that’s become rarer in the current rock mainstream, which made the successes of “The Cave” and “Little Lion Man” all the more surprising when they hit. He’s got a handle on the body’s strongest muscle — the heart, gutter-minds: for all the songs on “Sigh No More,” nearly all of them have the word “heart” in it. And if it’s not “heart,” it’s “hand.” And if it’s not either of those, it’s “arm.” Sometimes it’s any two. Look it up.
Mumford is a softie, but he’s got a problem with repetition. An even more fun fact is that all three body parts show up multiple times in “I Will Wait,” which combines all the lines you’d tell your love or your lord. Or, in the Mumfords’ frequent case, their Lord, as so many of their tracks are informed by their Christian heritage. Babel, after all, was man’s attempt to build a tower to heaven, resulting in Americans badly imitating Cockney accents during the Olympics.
Oh but they bring it home when they jump up an octave and beat the hell out of that chorus, don’t they? It’s a hot enough speed to qualify it as uptempo, a successful reintroduction of a winning formula will likely deny any talk of a sophomore slump. This song could be really huge. The set’s sale is going to be phenomenal.
Can you wait, can you wait for “Babel,” out on Sept. 25? Full tracklist below.
Here is the tracklist for “Babel”:
“Whispers In The Dark”
“I Will Wait”
“Holland Road”
“Ghosts That We Knew”
“Lover Of The Light”
“Lovers” Eyes”
“Reminder”
“Hopeless Wanderer”
“Broken Crown”
“Below My Feet”
“Not With Haste”