It is axiomatic that most artists spend the first few years of their career trying to achieve some level of success; the next few years building and maintaining it; and the following period trying to dismantle all the bothersome preconceptions such success creates. After the passing of a further period of time – and by now, perhaps, a little chastened – most artists desire only one thing: to return to that happy, uncomplicated first stage where, they now realise, they had never had it so good. Often, this tactical retreat proves to be significantly harder than they imagined.

You get the sense that everybody involved desperately wants it to be 2012 again

You get the sense that everybody involved desperately wants it to be 2012 again

On Mumford & Sons’ sixth album, you get the sense that everybody involved desperately wants it to be 2012 again. That was the year Marcus Mumford’s gang of banjo-plucking, foot-stomping, barn-converting neo-folkies went global thanks to the stirring simplicities of their second album, Babel. For while in 2026 Mumford & Sons can still sell out arenas and shift tens of thousands of albums, the days of having it all laid out in front of them are........

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