Josh Hinton can hear the biblical undertones in Mumford & Sons latest album, Prizefighter. But it’s the musical equivalent of magnolia paint, he says
You have to feel for Marcus Mumford and co. They may be six albums and 16 years into their million-selling career, but whenever they put out new music, people only ask one question: “Is it banjo-y?”
When their latest album, Prizefighter, was released last month, the press didn’t seem able to make up their minds. Clash magazine confidently stated that the band had “really stepped away from their usual style and…pushed the boundaries of what we, as an audience, know of their capabilities.” So – not much banjo.
The Independent, on the other hand, decided that the album sees them “doubling down on their original USP with glorious gusto.” Read: lots of banjo.
Jesus’ presence and teaching are laced through these words
It’s hard to agree with either take. Because although track three is literally called ‘The banjo song’, Prizefighter is neither a return to the stomp-and-holler of Mumford & Sons’ first two albums, nor a fearless new frontier.
Either of those things would have been exciting and engaging. But instead, this latest release is a remorselessly boring listen. The production is bloodless, the guitar is muted, the banjo is polite, the singing is too often mumbled and too rarely belted.
The joy of Sigh No More and Babel was in their urgency, their sense of abandon – hence the stomp and the holler. Prizefighter, by contrast, is buried under lazy, middle-of-the-road banality. I’ve listened to it five or six times and still find myself itching to turn it off after a few minutes. If magnolia paint had a sound, this would be it.
Reaching for more
This is a shame, because the album’s lyrics reach towards something more powerful than its inoffensive sound would suggest. Take ‘Conversation with my son’ as an example. It sets up a fatherly heart-to-heart, with the following advice to the young boy: “The cross or the machine, it’s always the same choice / The best I ever met had nothing and gave it all away / We’d rather be ruined than change and die in our dread / But love your crooked neighbour with your crooked heart”.
Jesus’ presence and teaching are laced through these words. The singer points to His self-giving example and exhorts his child to make the hard choice in the same vein – to put himself last and love the broken people around him, even through his own brokenness.
‘Rubber band man’ plays with similar ideas of Christ: “All knowing, all glowing with the light of the / Dying to raise the dead / You’re a world away but you’re still the same / I know you by your heart and I will call you by your name”.
The song acknowledges the eternal power of the resurrected saviour, but also His knowability, despite His holiness. Jesus may be completely God, but He makes Himself available to humans – we can know Him and call Him by His name. Then, in the chorus, there’s a line that could be a response from Christ Himself, affirming the redemptive power of the resurrection – the fact that through Him, death is not the end: “I am free and I’m able / To call you the second that you die / Just to live now”.
Searching for something
The rest of the album is less direct in its use of biblical imagery, but the songs all have a distinctly moral bent. ‘Begin again’ calls a depressed person to drop the weight of their “father’s sins” and recover their “good faith”. The eponymous title track ‘Prizefighter’ sees the singer reminiscing about the party days of his youth (“In my cups, I was on fire”) but affirming a more mature promise to “stay put ‘til you’re good”.
‘Shadow of a man’ is an extremely on-the-nose entry in the sub-genre ‘pop star wonders if there’s more to life than this’: “All I ever wanted was a reason to believe / But I’ve been holding on to everything as tightly as I can / Oh my God, I’m just a shadow of a man”.
If magnolia paint had a sound, this would be it
Depending on your persuasion, this will seem either heartfelt and winsome or preachy and navel-gazing. But even the most cynical listener would find it hard to deny that Marcus Mumford is questing for something pure and noble in his lyrics, or that Jesus is a guiding star for much of the journey.
As people across the UK undertake their own quests for meaning and purpose, Prizefighter is no bad roadmap – a kind of Pilgrim’s Progress for the age of the quiet revival. If only it wasn’t so dull on the ears.
Prizefighter by Mumford and Sons is available to stream now
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