Yesterday, the new Mumford & Sons single was released, called Believe, and it’s erm… very different. Very, very different…

SO, the first couple of seconds sounds like a rejected filler noise from The 1975’s debut album, and there is nO MASSIVE BANJO DROP WHAT THE FRICK THIS ISN’T MUMFORD!

The whole album is supposed to be a really different style from the standard and classic Mumford sound; last week they announced that they’re doing what every damn band is doing now and heading into the world of synthesizers, AND they’re going with hardcore electric guitars! (Okay, so maybe not “hardcore” per se, but definitely more electric than they were) and I don’t think too many people are happy with this…

As my friend Tony pointed out: “It’s like Coldplay fucked U2 and had a child with a birth defect” which is essentially one of the lowest criticisms you can possibly give, and this coming very soon after NICKELBACK RELEASED A GODDAMN DISCO TRACK!

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD?!

Now I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I’m a longtime Mumford & Sons fan – I only got into them, and fell in love with them, just over a year ago. Harry kept singing their songs to me, and every time I saw him he would make me listen to them, so they grew on me and I realised that they’re actually a lot better than the way over-played (and crappy) I Will Wait.

The news that they were headlining Reading and Leeds made me excited, and pissed me off (because I said I wouldn’t go back, but now it looks like I will be heading back to good ol’ Richfield Avenue this year…)

I listened to Believe a couple times last night, slept on it, listened to it another few times today and now I have made up my mind (for now) – I don’t like it. They change in sound is too much and way too noticeable! It worked for some bands – Arctic Monkeys went darker and way more intense with AM, and Bring Me The Horizon started lightening the fuck up with Sempiternal, and then went the whole way with Drown, but for these guys it really, really worked! The albums were HUGE successes, and sound freaking awesome, and the change happened almost naturally and it all just fit together really well.

Mumford’s change has come on too suddenly, and they’ve lost the only thing that made them stand out from everything else. Even Harry said the new song is shit, and that’s gotta be painful coming from him.

Even the music video gives nothing – yes it’s well shot, and it looks good, and it’s interesting, but it’s so dead and looks like a piece of photography coursework.

I’m not going to completely slam Mumford & Sons; I’ll wait for the new album, Wilder Mind, to come out on May 4th (STAR WARS DAY!), I’ll listen to that, and then I’ll make my judgments. But I’m not really impressed all that much right now, to be honest.