By this time, I was curious to find out what the great appeal of this church was, in part because Rob had been going there his whole life and had many close friends, there whom I had never met. Two months later Nick decided to undergo confirmation and invited me along to the service. Soon Nick was going twice a week and hanging out with ‘church friends’ every weekend - a significant change from his previous social circles. Nick had heard about HTB and, aware that Rob was a member there, asked Rob to take him along. This happened because another of my closest friends, Nick, had recently started to think that he believed in God. I didn’t think anything of this connection until, last year, I happened to visit this church, an incredibly popular evangelical institution called HTB. My friend Rob showed me a clip of them playing “The Cave” at a small club they went to his church, so he wanted to help publicize them.
I first heard Mumford & Sons in 2009, when they were still over a year from releasing their first album. The Biblical influence of their music brings me back to some personal experiences relating to the band. I expected their lyrics to be more linked to this trendy media perspective rather than to the Bible. I find these religious undertones surprising as Mumford is a young band whose members are perceived as cool role models – thanks to their style and celebrity associations Marcus Mumford recently married actress Carey Mulligan. And, like with Sigh No More, I also realize that as I sing along to Mumford’s lyrics, I will be singing abridged verses from the Bible and other words with a clearly spiritual message. Babel is pleasant and uplifting and I am sure that over the coming months I will become as familiar with it as I did with Sigh No More. The rest of the album follows suit, providing an equally enjoyable, but perhaps more refined, sound to that of Sigh No More. The album’s lead single, “I Will Wait,” is, like “Little Lion Man,” an upbeat, raucous tune that has already placed highly on charts throughout the English speaking world. Sigh No More provided high tempo, catchy songs, distinguished by Marcus Mumford’s powerful, husky voice and Winston Marshall’s plucky banjo. market, a rare feat for any foreign band, let alone one that plays folky rock. Mumford achieved popular success for their first album, Sigh No More, which was successful in the U.K. Conveniently, earlier this autumn Mumford released a new album, Babel. Artists such as Noah and the Whale, Stornoway, Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons fill my iPod. This longing for home has shifted my taste towards music that reminds me of my life before Princeton.
I pine for long walks through Hyde Park as the leaves begin to fall and the comforting warmth of good, English tea and ginger-nut biscuits. During these periods spent alone, I often find myself thinking about what my home in London is like right now, thousands of miles away. Now that the college semester is well and truly underway, I am spending increasing amounts of time sitting in libraries, working and listening to music.
0 kommentar(er)
