“How should we proceed / Without things getting too heavy?” asks Marcus Mumford on his first solo album. It’s a reasonable question to ask of both himself and his listeners, because the 10 raw songs on this self-titled record find the singer processing the sexual abuse he experienced as a child. He was apparently so concerned about triggering other victims that he sent all the lyrics to a trauma specialist to ensure he’d “reflected reality”.
This doesn’t mean he pulls any punches. The self-described former “fat kid from London”, who started out playing drums for Laura Marling and formed his own nu-folk band Mumford & Sons in 2007, has always worn his heart on his sleeve. His parents were both church leaders and he brought a preacher’s zeal into full-throated stadium anthems such as “I Will Wait”. When banjo player Winston Marshall left the band in response to the backlash he got for tweeting praise for far-right authors, the ever-inclusive Mumford “begged” him to stay.
