Review | Mumford & Sons – Prizefighter

By Tyler Wright

Label: Island Records

Returning with their second full-length in less than a year, after six long years away from the studio prior, beloved folk rock giants Mumford & Sons release album number six—‘Prizefighter’.

Themselves needing no introduction, the Stomp Clap era superstars also decided to gather a group of musicians who also need no introduction—assembling a flock of chart-topping, hit-making, award-winning Avengers to create their newest long player.

Four features is a record for features on a Mumford’s record—’Prizefighter’ can boast the country’s voice of a generation, Ireland’s biggest hitmaker since the turn of the millennium, a rising star responsible for one of the biggest tracks of the decade so far, and one of the new generation’s biggest pop megastars. I can only imagine Marcus Mumford’s phonebook is something of a yellow pages for the Grammy nominated.

After nearly two decades threatening to edge ever closer into the world of country music, Marcus Mumford and his sons recruit Southern rock’s star of a generation, Chris Stapleton, to kick off the record in exquisite fashion with ‘Here.’ MM’s vocal is as strong as ever and intertwines wonderfully with that of Stapleton, despite the latter slightly outshining the former—but that would happen if you had Chris Stapleton’s pipes. Though a small part is played, Stapleton steals the show. And that little guitar part is just gorgeous.

Written with Brandi Carlisle and featuring Hozier, the lead single ‘Rubber Band Man’ is another blinding collision of popular music’s most powerful voices—as the two pair perfectly. In a track so quintessentially Mumford & Sons, it is impressive to still sound so fresh and pull off such a collaboration—but it is even more impressive that they’re still so recognisable to the average listener despite the departure from their early 2010s sound. Gone are the days of the banjo and the fedora, yet they still sound so very “them” in their brand-new black leather jackets.

Okay, I’m joking—the banjos aren’t really gone; they’re here to stay! On ‘The Banjo Song,’ which in name sounds like the title of an SNL skit from the Babel era, the band calls upon yet another avenger in the form of Jon Bellion. With a concurrent banjo plucking away and their catchiest chorus since David Cameron was still in number 10, despite its nostalgia-inducing title—it again feels like an ultramodern, mature take on the type of music that propelled them to Grammy-winning, Glastonbury-headlining, dizzy heights.

‘Prizefighter’ is a fourteen-track run—which sees a lot of its less edge-of-your-seat exciting moments almost blend into one; it would have run slightly smoother if compacted. Though saying that, ‘Alleycat’ is the only track that feels like filler.

Despite being written with the man who has won about 8,000 songwriting awards, Finneas O’Connell, ‘Run Together’ plays it quite safe but is still charming, nonetheless. The band labeled ‘Conversation With My Son (Gangsters & Angels)’ their favourite song they’d ever written—a simple yet truly moving track that has been a staple of the band’s live show since their previous album run. The title track features the magic touch of Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and as everyone knows, everything that man touches turns to gold—so after a slow start, that track grows into a new beast.

You can also find Vernon on the Gracie Abrams-featuring track, ‘Badlands’—where his magic touch is the perfect backdrop for Mumford’s wonderfully sung words and Abrams’ signature near-whispers. The opposite of which being, ‘Icarus’—a real head-turner with Gigi Perez, of ‘Sailor Song’ fame, guesting. The frontman gets the ball rolling, but the show is stolen by the power of Perez.

The standout of the tracks with no input from the group’s famous mutual friends is absolutely ‘Begin Again.’ Marcus Mumford soars over the chorus; the rhythm section will get the head bobbing—this is the closest they’ve ever gotten to the rockier sound of 2015’s ‘Wilder Mind,’ which I believe to be their best work. 

The pretty, plucky closer—‘Clover’—is a vulnerable, head-soothing love song. Mr. Mumford sings, “At the end of the day when I’m broken or beat, here, I have everything I need with these honey eyes on me”—with a voice like honey too.

Brilliant at its heights and with a severe lack of lows, ‘Prizefighter’ is the Mumfords’ best work in years. What feels like an album for the fans at times may also serve as a reminder to those who left them with The Lumineers in 2015—that with age comes maturity, new ideas, and in this case, quite a wonderful collection of songs, all brought to life by master of pop production, Aaron Dessner.