Tag: Mumford & Sons (11-20 of 27)

Nov 5 2012 04:39 PM ET

Mumford & Sons release 'Lover of the Light' video starring (and directed by) Idris Elba

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Mumford & Sons’ new music video for their latest U.K. single “Lover of the Light” (the track has not been confirmed as an official U.S. single yet, as “I Will Wait” is still thriving) hit the web over the weekend, and it has faithful Mumford fans wiping their eyes… and scratching their heads.

The cinematic clip, which stars and was co-directed by U.K. actor Idris Elba (Luther), follows a blind man’s journey out of his home (where he appears to be grieving the loss of a lover) and out into the forest. As he runs through the woods, his confidence surges — and a sort of joy blossoms on his face — until he arrives at a cliff side and yells his heart out to the ocean. He’s alive! In a world of darkness, he loves the light.

Elba’s journey through the wilderness is inter-spliced with images of a swift antlered deer, though it’s somewhat unclear whether he’s chasing the deer, imagining the deer, or if the nimble deer is simply an evocative representation of the man’s sensory aptitude.

What does it all add up to? Honestly, I don’t know — and that’s after watching the video three times — but I don’t mind that. It’s a gorgeous piece with lovely cinematography set to one of Babel‘s best tracks. Give it a watch below: READ FULL STORY »

Oct 24 2012 01:10 PM ET

Album Sales: Jason Aldean's 'Night Train' chugs to No. 1; Taylor Swift outsells it in one day

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In any other week, the first-week sales of Jason Aldean’s new album Night Train would be a very big deal.

The disc, a follow up to his double-platinum smash My Kinda Party, sold 409,000 copies in its first seven days — a huge number by any measure, and the second-best debut sales week of 2012 behind Mumford & Sons’ Babel, which moved 600,000 copies in its opening frame.

Unfortunately for Aldean, news of his chart-topping feat arrives less than a day after projections for Taylor Swift’s Red blew up the internet. Swift, who sold over 500,000 copies of Red in its first day, is expected to sell over 1 million copies in her first week, which would make her the first woman in history to have two albums sell more than 1 million copies in their first weeks. Yowza.

But let’s get back to Aldean’s accomplishment. Night Train is the rocking country star’s first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200. He formerly peaked at No. 2 in 2010 with My Kinda Party, but was kept out of the top spot, funnily enough, by Taylor Swift, whose Speak Now was reigning atop the chart.

Considering My Kinda Party became an enduring hit, ultimately moving 2.8 million copies, I’m expecting Night Train to be a freight train with buyers. After all, Aldean is selling out arenas across the country, and he (along with everyone else releasing albums in the final quarter of 2012) will get a big boost from the holiday buying rush. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 17 2012 01:00 PM ET

How Mumford & Sons and Taylor Swift are causing a seismic shift in the music industry

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Image Credit: Kitra Cahana/Getty Images

The biggest debut of 2012 doesn’t belong to a glossy pop act like One Direction or Justin Bieber.

Sure, those boys have hordes of teenage girls ready to download their music at the drop of a tweet, but they’ve got nothing on the scruffy gents of Mumford & Sons, whose new disc, Babel sold 600,000 copies in its first seven days. (The next-best opening? Bieber’s Believe, with 374,000 in week 1.)

Babel‘s success (it has now led the chart for three weeks and sold 865,000 copies total) is indicative of a larger shift within the music industry. As pop music morphs into a glow-stick dance party, country acts have adopted the traditional pop sound. That leaves Mumford and the burgeoning Americana and folk genres (think acoustic guitars, banjos, and innumerable fitted tweed vests) to fill the country void. Did you get all that? Allow us to break it down. READ FULL STORY »

Oct 3 2012 12:08 PM ET

Album Sales: Mumford & Sons' 'Babel' has the biggest debut of the year

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Mumford & Sons are officially the biggest band on the planet.

The London lads scored the best debut sales week of 2012 with their sophomore album Babel, which moved 600,000 copies in its first week and easily topped the Billboard 200. Their last album, Sigh No More, which quietly sold 2.5 million copies over the course of two and a half years (and consequently jumped to No. 10 this week!) peaked at No. 2 during the week of the Grammys in 2011, when Mumford took the stage with Bob Dylan and the Avett Brothers.

Babel‘s amazing sales far outshine the next-best debut of the year, Justin Bieber’s Believe, which sold 374,000 copies in its first week. And the album marked the best debut since Drake’s Take Care moved 630,000 units in November. Still, Babel will have to settle for second place in terms of overall sales weeks in 2012 — Adele’s 21 sold 730,000 copies in the frame following the Grammys, her album’s 52nd(!) week.

Of the 600,000 copies that Babel sold, a whopping 420,000 (72 percent) of them were digital albums. That’s the second-biggest digital sales week ever behind Lady Gaga’s Born This Way, which sold 662,000 digital copies thanks, in part, to its controversial 99-cent deal on Amazon. READ FULL STORY »

Sep 10 2012 02:54 PM ET

Mumford & Sons release video for 'I Will Wait' - watch it here

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There are a million folk and bluegrass bands out there – what makes Mumford & Sons so special?

Scope.

The London quartet have always had a thing for building seemingly humble songs towards rapturous, arena-ready climaxes.  Now, in the new video for “I Will Wait,” off their upcoming sophomore release Babel, they’ve actually got an arena–the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado, to be exact.

Directed by Fred & Nick, the video showcases the group in a recent performance of their grand, foot-stomping single in front of thousands of exuberant fans.  Even in the cavernous space, the group sound like they might bust right through the rock walls:

READ FULL STORY »

Aug 16 2012 05:20 PM ET

On the Charts: Taylor Swift's big sales, Flo Rida's 'Whistle' blows up, The Lumineers say 'Hey'

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Taylor Swift’s new single “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” may just sell the most downloads ever! ever! ever! in its first week.

Released on Monday night, the song is reportedly heading to first-week downloads in the 600,000 range, which would make the breakup anthem the fastest selling song ever by a female artist. (Lady Gaga currently holds that record with “Born This Way,” which was downloaded 448,000 times in its first frame.)

There’s one song Taylor probably will probably not outsell, though: “Right Round” by Flo Rida feat. Ke$ha, which sold 636,000 songs in a single week in 2009. Still, if she climbs past Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” which moved 521,000 editions in its first week, she’ll have the second-best sales week in digital history. Not too shabby.

We’ll see how high “Never,” which hit No. 72 on this week’s Hot 100, soars next week, but for now, let’s check out the week’s other chart winners and losers: READ FULL STORY »

Aug 7 2012 06:00 PM ET

Mumford & Sons release new single 'I Will Wait' -- hear it here

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Image Credit: Rebecca Miller

That thrashing banjo. That London brogue. That signature blend of churchy angst and romantic melodrama.

It could only mean one thing: Mumford & Sons are back.

The British foursome, whose last album Sigh No More became a double-platinum sleeper smash (over two years after its release, it’s still kicking around in the Top 40), is back with a lush new single, “I Will Wait,” and they’ve just released the audio link online.

The song, the first from their forthcoming Babel (due Sept. 24), hearkens back to their Grammy nomination-festooned single “The Cave” with its shouted refrain, triumphant horns, a driving kick drum, and an earnest lyric about a relationship so perfect is has Marcus Mumford kneeling down in reverence, raising his hands, and wishing for his mind to be “freed from the lies.” READ FULL STORY »

Jul 16 2012 11:58 AM ET

Mumford & Sons announce new album, 'Babel'

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It’s been three years since British crooners Mumford & Sons brought banjo back with their sleeper hit Sigh No More, which slowly but steadily sold over 2.2 million copies in the U.S.

When the “Little Lion” men‘s just-announced sophomore album Babel hits stores on September 24, it will likely arrive with a much more immediate bang.

On their official website, Mumford revealed the track listing for their new set, and if titles like “Broken Crown” and “Ghosts that We Knew” are any indication, the introspective lads are still struggling to grow up and clarify what they believe about life, love, and death.

The title track also carries an allusion to the Hebrew Bible; “Babel” was the name used for the City of Babylon, and the word also relates to the Tower of Babel, which the book of Genesis describes an enormous structure built in hopes of reaching the heavens  (that is, until God confounded the peoples’ languages and scattered them throughout the Earth).

Marcus Mumford, whose parents are leaders of the Vineyard Church in the UK and Ireland, appears to be serving up another set of brogue-infused Sunday-school angst. And perhaps some wedded bliss as well — we’re guessing “Lover’s Eyes” is about new bride Carey Mulligan.

Nine of Babel‘s twelve tracks have already found their way to the web, mostly in the form of live performances. Check out the full track listing below, along with a few embedded clips. (For a handy YouTube compilation of all the tracks currently floating through the web, click here.) READ FULL STORY »

Jan 23 2012 11:04 AM ET

Neil Young on music today: 'I don't like it'

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Image Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Neil Young is not happy.

While at Utah’s Slamdance, where he’s promoting the upcoming concert film Neil Young Journeys, the 66-year-old got to talking about what he believes is the problem with modern music: sound quality.

“I’m finding that I have a little bit of trouble with the quality of the sound of music today,” Young said. “I don’t like it. It just makes me angry. Not the quality of the music, but we’re in the 21st century and we have the worst sound that we’ve ever had. It’s worse than a 78 [rpm record].”

“Where are our geniuses?” he asked. “What happened?”

READ FULL STORY »

Dec 8 2011 02:48 PM ET

iTunes: Adele tops 2011's best-selling song and album charts

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Image Credit: Matt Sayles/AP Photo

Did we need further evidence that this has been Adele’s year sales-wise? Probably not. But for the benefit of anyone still debating the matter, iTunes has just announced that the British singer’s track “Rolling in the Deep” was the year’s top downloaded song while its parent album, 21, was 2011′s most popular collection. iTunes also named Adele its Artist of the Year.

21 was followed on the album list by Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More and Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter IV. LMFAO claimed second place on the singles list with “Party Rock Anthem” while Katy Perry’s “Firework” was third.

Find iTunes’ top ten best-selling songs and albums of 2011 below: READ FULL STORY »

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