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| driftrecords.com |
So, for the longest time we all knew Mumford & Sons as the band with the banjo, but it turns out that they are actually pretty interesting artists who like to experiment with the kind of music they do. While I wasn’t the world’s biggest fan of their last album, I really can’t fault them for wanting to break that mold they’d found themselves in. However, I don’t think they’ve taken as big a leap musically as they have here, with this five song EP simply titled Johannesburg. Why is it so unique? Let’s find out.
Okay, this is going to be a fairly short review because, well, there’s only five songs here. The hook to this EP is that Mumford & Sons has decided to merge their folk-ish style of music with African music, teaming up with African artists Baaba Maal, Beatenberg, and The Very Best. This blend is both the hook and the best part of the entire EP, since they manage to make this very foreign sound work. I had never heard of these artists and had honestly never heard any African music (and I’m not sure The Lion King soundtrack counts), so this was very fascinating to me. Getting a taste of this music was really infectious, and it made me want to dive into this music more and discover more.
I’m not going to go into each song in particular (for reasons I’ll talk about in my negatives section), but I was really impressed with how much Mumford & Sons really let their guest artists shine. While they are definitely present and their style guides the songs, they really let the African artists take center stage, something I really appreciated. All too often the main artists love to shove their guests out of the way and make sure that they get all the attention, but Mumford & Sons didn’t do that. Each of the three artists/groups appears on the majority of these songs, and sometimes I’d even forget Mumford & Sons was there! Honestly I felt like the African artists should have been the ones behind this EP rather than the guests, but that’s how just how life goes. Hopefully this helps them get the international exposure they truly deserve.
While I’m saying all these good things, it doesn’t escape me that I’m talking about a five song EP with no theme, story, or narrative thread to string them together. While I don’t expect an EP to have these things, the writing isn’t good enough and the songs aren’t really all that memorable. The sound and the vocals are all amazing, but at the end of the day all I remember from this selection of songs is the way “Wona” incorporated drums or how The Very Best killed it on “Ngamila’s” chorus. It’s disappointing to say that on such a unique and cool EP that I will have probably forgotten it by tomorrow, really, but here we are.
Yes, it probably wasn’t a great idea to follow up an intricately constructed and narrative-driven album with a five song EP, but there is plenty to enjoy in Johannesburg. The sound is very cool and like nothing you’ve heard before (if you’re an average listener of music, that is), and each performer is fantastic. If this EP was supposed to introduce us to African music and get us to want to listen to more of it, they succeeded. If this EP was meant to provide some great, memorable music, then it’s kind of a bust. I really hope they explore this avenue more, though, because I think they have something great here that they can build upon.
My Top 3:
- Fool You’ve Landed
- Wona
- There Will Be Time
My Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Johannesburg is available now.
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