By JJT (written for ThinkChristian.net)

With Delta, the banjos (and biblical resonance) make a comeback.

There may be no modern band with more baggage than Mumford & Sons. With roots in the church and a sense of earnestness that would make Rattle and Hum-era Bono blush, Marcus Mumford (literally a preacher’s kid) and his bandmates struck a chord in 2009 with their arena-sized folk, which offered millions of millennials relief from over-processed and dehumanized synthetic pop, hip-hop, and even country. Yet soon these four UK lads became prisoners of their own success (and sound).

Since no one knows how to rebel like a preacher’s kid, Mumford & Sons’ third album, 2015’s Wilder Mind, bore all the subtlety of an Amish rumspringa. Gone were the banjos, acoustic guitars, standing kick-drums, and suspenders. The songs were darker, less hymn-like, and seemed to be more interested in being invited into a hip urban club than the local football stadium for a sing-along. The record was a creative temper tantrum that was quickly forgotten. Like so many suddenly successful bands before them, Mumford & Sons were so busy defying their self-imposed boundaries they forgot that none of this matters if the audience tunes out.

The thing about rebellion is that it is really only interesting for the rebel. Every prodigal realizes this eventually. The band’s existential spasm seems to have served its purpose, though. When they reconvened to craft their fourth and latest album, Delta, they realized that the only rules that hemmed them in were ones they built, or imagined, for themselves. The forced modernization of Wilder Mind was just as artificial as the forced affectations of their earlier period. It was time to cast off all of those boundaries and simply come home.

Delta, cleverly named after both the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet and the point at which a river pours into the great big ocean, is a study in casting off artifice and embracing the great unknown. In the case of Mumford & Sons, that turns out to be a collection of mostly middle-of-the-road, melody-driven, epic, arena-scale, folk-pop. Shocker, I know!

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