Song of the Week: “Lover of the Light” by Mumford and Sons

It’s been a little over two months since the release of Mumford and Sons second album. It’s also been a little over two months since my first post to this blog, in which I revealed my love for the folk quartet while discussing their unplugged and acoustic-y “Timshel.” Two months may be an nontraditional anniversary to celebrate, but with the airing of part five of the group’s Gentlemenof the Road documentary series on Wednesday night, I realized that a return to the Mumf was long overdue.

I knew I would love Babel over a year before it was released, more than six months before the album was even announced. This perhaps is a testament to how long the group has been working on this album. But I was also able to listen to so many of these new and unreleased songs because of the internet and the ability that videos of live concerts have of finding their way onto Youtube. This is a phenomenon that I have heard many entertainers, from comedians to musicians, discuss.

Perhaps the biggest and most reasonable concern voiced from these groups is about their impaired ability to keep unfinished material under wraps while it is being polished. But there are also concerns of keeping the audience’s attention. If everyone can watch it on Youtube as much as they want, what gets them to buy the album when it is actually released? What gets them to purchase tickets for live shows?

My experience with the lead up to Babel involved both of these issues. Firstly, and I can say that this did not turn out to be the case, I was worried that, having listened to about half of the album through various Youtube concert clips, I would not be as interested in hearing their album versions or that I would not be as interested in hearing the album over and over again. Since getting Babel in late-September, I have listened to it in its entirety at least every other day, not to mention the fact that I still listen to the many of the songs in their live, Youtube versions. Perhaps this is an unhealthy addiction of mine. Perhaps the videos only served to pique my appetite.

Something else that the uncontrolled proliferation of content through the internet has allowed me to see is the evolution of certain material. I found myself, and in similar situations with other musicians or comedians, taking note of a certain version of a song or a joke and looking forward to see how it would be recorded for the album. I first heard “Lover of the Light” because of this video. Recorded in 2010 at the Itunes festival, the song here is very upbeat and fast paced. Lead singer Mumford is on the drums and he begins the song with nothing besides his voice. Then I heard an earlier version of the song, in this video. This is my favorite version of the song; for an ineffable reason, I like it even more than the album version embedded up top. It’s almost a minute longer than the Itunes festival version, and you feel that throughout the entire song. It is so persistently slow, but it still contains this restrained energy.

Then the album came out and “Lover of the Light” was released as its first single. This video, directed by and starring Idris Elba, soon followed. Fucking awesome.