Prizefighter” is a good pop album–just not a great folk one
Mumford & Son’s 2009 album “Sigh No More” was revolutionary for folk music and is widely credited with bringing sounds of folk music back into the mainstream, making the band one of the most influential in modern folk. Along with bands like the Lumineers (my favorite!), who were arguably influenced by M&S, they helped spark a folk revival in the 2010s that ultimately paved the way for iconic acts like Caamp and Noah Kahan.
But Mumford & Sons have always kind of occupied a strange space within the folk genre. I wouldn’t particularly consider them “folk” in the same way I think of artists like Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne or Simon & Garfunkel. I feel like artists like The Lumineers, Caamp and Noah Kahan carry that classic sound much more clearly, while M&S tends to hover somewhere between folk and pop.
Unfortunately for folk lovers like me, their newest album “Prizefighter” seems to fully embrace their pop sound. While the instrumentals are still strong and feature a beautiful banjo, the vocals and choruses all sound overly-polished, at the expense of the grittiness and rawness that can make folk so compelling to listen to.
The opening track “Here” featuring Chris Stapleton is a jarring start. It leans heavily into Stapleton’s country sound in a way that doesn’t actually carry over to the rest of the album, making it an odd choice for the opener. The second song, “Rubber Band Man” fares better, largely due to a feature from Hozier; I think this would have made a much better opening track.
“Banjo Song” and “Run Together” both opened with powerful instrumentals, but by the time the chorus hits they both sound more pop than folk. As the songs progress, the production becomes increasingly polished, which ends up overpowering the raw acoustic elements. This unedited raw sound is integral to folk music in my opinion, and once it gets cleaned up too much it loses some of its authenticity.
Unfortunately, this felt like a recurring issue throughout the album. All of the songs have great instrumentals but they’re completely overwhelmed by the lead vocals. I really would have loved to see more layered vocal harmonies, which is something Mumford & Sons has always done really well, instead of relying on studio production. Instead, these songs mainly just feature Marcus Mumford’s voice with some background instrumentals.
Still, there are some highlights. “Conversation With My Son” was solid, and I really liked the harmonies with Gangsters & Angels. “Alleycat” was one of my favorites – the beginning feels really nostalgic and reminds me of their older music, but the chorus still felt overproduced and pop-y. The title track “Prizefighter” was a fun listen, but it just sounded like a generic pop-folk song. While these three songs were all enjoyable to listen to, I didn’t necessarily think there was anything special about them.
I think the last three songs on the album are the strongest and sounded much more like classic Mumford & Sons– banjo driven and a little rough around the edges. “Shadow of a Man,” “I’ll Tell You Everything” and “Clover” were three objectively good soft-folk songs. I finished the album wishing that M&S had chosen to lean into a softer folk direction rather than the overproduced pop direction.
Overall, I really didn’t think “Prizefighter” was a bad album, I actually think it was a pretty good pop album. Maybe my expectations were too high, but coming from a band that helped produce some of the most foundational albums in modern folk, I was really hoping for a solid folk album. Instead, the album is much more polished and pop-sounding, stepping away from its folk revival roots.