I can't say that “Prizefighter” is my favorite album.
The folk-pop that runs through this sixth chapter of the Mumford & Sons trio is not up my alley, yet I cannot deny that there is craft, compositional care, lyrical attention and a palpable tension between roots and desire for renewal. Fifty-five minutes that see them suspended between the archaic folk fervor that defined them and a clear attempt to redefine what the band represents today.
Listening to the album, I perceive an English band that sounds more American than ever, as if it were looking at its own repertoire from the brink, questioning the meaning of a folk now past and the aesthetic fragmentation of the present.
The album was written and produced in collaboration with Aaron Dessner of The National in his Long Pond Studio, in New York State and this profoundly marks the production: the stomp-claps, the arrangements that go beyond traditional folk, everything has the sense of meticulous work, but often more aimed at consolidating a stylistic code than at truly pushing the band's language beyond known boundaries.
In songs like Rubber Band Manwith Hozier, you can feel the effort to recover that folk pride that had decreed the success of Mumford & Sons, but the clarity and softness of the sound performance reduce the strength of the emotional bite. Here the voices dialogue rather than confront each other, and the result leaves the sensation of an overly measured balance, which doesn't really scratch.
The album is enriched by the presence of external voices: Gracie Abrams, Chris Stapleton, Gigi Perez, with the contribution of authors such as Justin Vernon as well as the aforementioned Dessner. There are moments when these contributions open up a surprising tonal communion, but other times the band's identity dissolves into the larger chorus. Icarusfeaturing Perez, builds to an almost cinematic climax, and I sense the album's ambition there, but overall this opening helps give the album the quality of a collage, rather than a coherent narrative.
“Prizefighter” is a record that sediments: its beauty is subtle, often hidden under the evidence of a composite and collaborative brand. There is good music, the kind that works now in that genre, yet I am left with the feeling of an absence, of that something that could have made listening truly memorable and made me passionate about a genre that I don't feel naturally myself.
SCORE: 6.50
THE VOTES OF OTHERS
The Independent (UK) – Rating 8.00
Mojo – Rating 8.00
Pitchfork – Rating 5.90
TO LISTEN NOW
Rubber Band Man – Icarus – Badlands
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Personally a bit boring. I repeat, it's not up my alley but a listen isn't disturbing!
