A confession of faith for the folk artists?
On Mar. 28, Mumford and Sons released their much-anticipated album “Rushmere.” It was the band’s first album in seven years.
The British band is well loved among University of Dallas students for their profound lyrics, allusions to Core texts – like “The Odyssey” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” – and seamless blend of folk, indie and rock elements.
Mumford and Sons songs abound with Christian and Scriptural imagery, from the prayerful “Awake my Soul,” to the Scripturally allusive “Babel.” The songs stray from the kitschy sentimentality that plagues mainstream Christian music, while still providing introspective meditations on faith, romance and perseverance through pain.
However, in a 2012 interview, Marcus Mumford, the band’s lead singer, said, “I don’t even call myself a Christian. Spirituality is the word we engage with more. We’re fans of faith, not religion.”
Rather than proclaim a creed, the band’s songs highlight a person’s wrestling with God, not resting in His presence. They show man’s ardent desire for light, and the anger and brokenness that ensues when that light appears unapproachable.
One of the songs that best shows the band’s lyrical tension between faith and agnosticism is “Roll Away Your Stone.” Mumford sings, “It seems that all my bridges have been burned / but you say that’s exactly how this grace thing works.”
It is this sentiment that has forged some of the greatest works of Catholic literature by authors like Flannery O’Connor, Evelyn Waugh, and Graham Greene. It is in the darkest, most hellish moments that grace finds an entry point into a hardened sinner’s soul, transforming the person in a subtle way that is often not obvious until the next life.
The tension between sin and sanctity, ghastliness and grace, produces mesmerizing artwork, and for Mumford and Sons, award-winning music. But this tension has appeared to dissipate in their newest album.
The album is the end-result of what the singers have described as a much-needed period of personal rest and healing. It comes after Marcus Mumford’s 2022 solo album, “(self-titled),” which unflinchingly explores his wounds from childhood sexual abuse and his painful, grace-filled healing journey.
The album’s ten songs appear to confirm that an immense healing and transformation has taken place in the group’s hiatus.
The album’s titular song “Rushmere” sings of “restless hearts,” an undoubted allusion to the opening of Augustine’s Confessions. The phrase confirms the theme that has been present throughout the band’s entire discography, the striving to uncover truth and meaning in a world that seems meaningless without a Creator.
The album’s opening song, “Malibu,” sounds just like a praise and worship song. The chorus is “You are all I want / You’re all I need / I’ll find peace beneath the shadow of your wings.” The strong Scriptural imagery throughout this song makes it hard to listen to without seeing a Christian significance in the music.
The prayerful nature of the music only grows in later songs like “Surrender,” in which Mumford sings, “Break me down / and put me back together / I surrender, / I surrender now. / And hold me in the promise of forever.”
In the past I’ve enjoyed praying with certain Mumford and Sons songs, but for the first time I feel as if the band actually wants me to be singing these words at 2 am in the chapel. It does seem like the group is far from any religious conversion. Other songs in the album still display a restlessness and discontent with organized Christianity.
In the album’s final song, “Carry On,” Mumford sings, “If this is what it’s like to be lost / I will take this heresy over your hypocrisy / And count any cost.”
Perhaps these lyrics show that nothing has really changed in the singers’ personal beliefs or in the purpose of their music. But there is undoubtedly a shift in this album, from anger to acceptance and from resistance to surrender.