Mumford and Sons haven't lost their mojo post Winston Marshall's ‘cancellation'
Following a winning streak of three consecutive US chart-topping albums (and two in the UK), Marcus Mumford's folk-rock giants sit only behind Coldplay as Britain's biggest post-millennial band. It's been seven long years since their last outing: in the interim, country & western has helpfully come back into fashion, but that aside there's sufficient ammo on this fifth long-player to keep their band up top.
Often cast as posh lads without the cares that affect us lesser mortals, Mumford & Sons have latterly suffered a minor mid-life crisis. In his lyrics for 2018's Delta, their California-born leader appeared to be battling depression, and that was before the strange mid-pandemic resignation of banjo player Winston Marshall – after endorsing a book which critiqued a far-Left protest organisation (and which saw him accused of promoting the far Right), Marshall left under a cloud.
In the aftermath of a public severance, it's all too tempting to read those songs transmitting fury, accusation or regret as a direct comment. Certainly, Where It Belongs would potentially qualify: 'Are you really gone? Everybody keeps asking,' runs the opening couplet, against funereal piano chords and acoustic guitar picking, before this withering message: 'When you speak, do you think you could do it kindly?...And let your anger go to hell/Where it belongs?'
This downbeat and rather bitter broadside holds a dominant place in Rushmere. The album also begins in a forlorn mood of defeat: 'In all my doubt/In all my weakness/Can you lead?' purrs the usually foghorn-voiced stadium belter in the first moments of Malibu.
This, though, is an anthem of the Mumfords' post-Marshall rebuilding, and as Marcus sings more robustly about feeling 'the spirit move in me again', keyboardist Ben Lovett and bassist Ted Dwane chime in with rousing Crosby, Stills & Nash-style harmonies, before the tension bursts into the sort of shimmering feel-good chorus with which U2 and, yes, Coldplay fill the biggest arenas.
Rushmere, the album, is named after a lake on Wimbledon Common, where Mumford, Lovett, Dwayne (and, presumably, Marshall) would hang out as kids (and across the road from which was Kings College School, attended by Lovett and Mumford). The title track urges a reconnection with those days' foundational dreams, to a fittingly expansive chorus: 'Don't you miss the breathlessness, the wildness in the eye,' sings Mumford, and beseeches his cohorts to 'light me up, I'm wasted in the dark' – again, to put Delta's 'black dog' behind him.
Now 38, and married to British actor Carey Mulligan since 2012 (three kids and counting), Mumford is possessed of that all-pleasing gene which drives superhero rockers like Bruce Springsteen and Bono. He'd never let even an M&S record drag, so upbeat bangers arrive to balance out the downs – chest-beating, country-rocker Caroline veritably screams 'FM radio', while Truth channels all the rootsy oomph of Led Zeppelin III.
Textured with synthy atmospherics more than old-time banjos, Rushmere was recorded with Grammy-laden Americana producer Dave Cobb, mostly in Nashville's fabled RCA Studio A, where he cut multi-platinum blockbusters with Kentucky star Chris Stapleton. Clearly, he has the knack for making an epic-scale, ultra-modern production feel intimate and enticing.
Folky stand-outs like Monochrome cast a warm glow, and Carry On concludes with the expertly poignant wordplay and emotive refrain which will surely have Anglo-American audiences weeping. Five albums in, the Mumfords will, indeed, carry on.
Best New Songs
By Poppie Platt
Ariana Grande, Twilight Zone
Every pop star worth their salt has jumped on the 'deluxe' album bandwagon – Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter – and now Ariana Grande, fresh from touring the world on the Wicked-hype train, joins in the fun. This fun, flirty addition to last year's terrific Eternal Sunshine is an electro-drenched love song posing as the perfect vehicle for her unparalleled vocals, every breathy note disarmingly powerful.
Dua Lipa and Troye Sivan, Physical
Five years since lockdown means five years since Dua Lipa's chart-topping dancefloor (or, back then, bedroom) filler, Future Nostalgia. This bonus anniversary edition of smash-hit single Physical recruits pal and pop maverick Troye Sivan to inject some freshness.
Jack Garratt, Catherine Wheel
The former Brits Critics Choice Award winner is back with new music for the first time in five years and Catherine Wheel marks an exciting new direction: emotionally raw, soul-baring, but still hinging on catchy hooks and Mumford and Sons-esque thumping bass and choral backing.
St Vincent, DOA
St Vincent (Annie Clark) is one of the most singular voices in American indie-rock – endlessly inventive, always evolving. Her set at Glastonbury later this summer promises to be a highlight, so to prepare yourself check out this pulsating, synth-laden banger that should get the crowds at Worthy Farm dancing all night long.
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an hour ago
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A month before the Leicester Square trial comes to a head, I'm chatting to singer-songwriter Harry Marshall over Zoom. Speaking in a mild Aussie accent, he's visibly despondent. After seven years of performing on the streets of Westminster, Marshall now holds criminal convictions for busking illegally. He had called Piccadilly Circus his second home, making a living singing and playing guitar there, since 2018. 'It was a great way to make music my full time job,' he says. 'Everyday I got to connect with hundreds of people emotionally and musically.' So, when he found out that a licensing scheme had been introduced by Westminster council in 2021 – with the aim to 'strike a balance between supporting performers and addressing issues related to noise, obstruction and inappropriate locations' – he dutifully applied. Under the new rules, buskers had to now pay to play in designated spots across the borough. 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He moved to London from the south coast in 2017 and started regularly busking at Tottenham Court Road two years later. 'The busking scene at that point was amazing,' he recalls. 'It was completely free and on the 25-minute walk from the bottom of Tottenham Court Road all the way to Marble Arch, you'd probably see at least 10 buskers. Everyone was sharing spots, there was zero pressure from the council and people loved us, especially the tourists. 'I used to busk with a DJ and a sax player and we'd have three or four hundred people dancing in the street. They all stayed for hours – homeless people dancing next to people in suits, children next to grandparents. There was so much community and love. Now you go up Oxford Street and there's maybe one [busker], if you're lucky.' We used to have four hundred people dancing in the street When Herrington returned to his (now illegal) Tottenham Court Road pitch after lockdown, he was informed that he wasn't allowed to play without a licence and yet, in a catch-22, his application was denied on account of him having played before being made aware of the rules. He tried to continue without the permit but tells me that by 2024 'you could not busk once on any given day without someone from the council coming up to you'. That's when he began to give in: 'At that point they had started sueing loads of buskers. I had my last warning and because I'd seen my mates get actual convictions, I decided I'm just going to accept that I can't play there anymore. Then I moved to Camden and the same thing happened. It was so much hassle.' Shanilee Tordilla, a regular on the Leicester Square pitch pre-ban, tells me that even with the license, busking had been made harder. 'It didn't take long to realise that the licence wasn't benefitting us but doing the opposite,' she says. 'If you had the licence then you had more opportunities to be prosecuted. There are people who don't know about the licensing scheme and frankly they get away with it because they just come and go as they like.' Serena Kaos, a local busker and member of the Westminster Street Performers Association (WPSA) agrees that those who follow the rules responsibly and abide by the licensing rules are being lumped into the same category as the buskers that play at excessive volumes in antisocial hours and being made to suffer the consequences. 'The buskers that are part of the WSPA are typically very reasonable. We operate on community-based actions.' Amping it up But if noise is the problem, wouldn't the solution simply be to ditch the microphone, switch off the electric amplifier and perform acoustically? 'Go and stand in the middle of Leicester Square and tell me that if I played or sang completely acoustically that anyone would even hear me,' Harry says. 'You need a certain level of amplification. The art of street performance is about capturing people's attention and holding them for a short amount of time to impress them enough to drop a coin in your case. That is hard enough to do in itself, let alone without an amplifier.' Kaos echoes his argument: 'Music does not cut through more than one metre in a central location like Leicester Square. By taking amplification away, you're just taking away street musicians.' Two years after the licensing scheme had been introduced, Westminster Council released a policy review. It revealed that noise complaints had actually increased considerably since the rules had been implemented. Between April 2021 and May 2023 there were 5,070 complaints lodged, up around 1,000 compared to the two years before. It reported that 'some buskers argue that due to the limited opportunities, they can only get onto the Leicester Square pitch once in a day, so they must play louder to attract audiences and maximise their potential earnings. This has meant that the volume can be much louder than they would use normally.' Still, prior to the ruling, the WSPA and the council had been taking regular meter readings (buskers are allowed to play on designated amplified pitches at no more than 78 decibels) and, according to Kaos, had agreed that members weren't playing to levels that could be considered a nuisance. What's next? 'With all the venues shutting down can we at least let people play on the street? What sort of grey world are you trying to create?' Herrington asks. He struggles to be optimistic about busking's future in the city. 'I hate to say it but it's done. I think a lot of buskers are quite fragmented from each other so it's quite hard to get everyone to rally together.' Nevertheless, the WSPA plans to fight to get the Leicester Square pitch back or at least get another pitch to replace it, with intentions to protest on the square every fortnight or so. A spokesperson from the organisation told Time Out: 'The solution lies not in banning street performance altogether, but in working together to establish reasonable compromises around volume levels, speaker types and designated locations. Leicester Square is a cultural landmark – not just for tourism and commerce, but for expression, spontaneity, and opportunity.' When I stop by one of these demonstrations, they're met with mixed reactions. Some members of the public stop to read the WSPA's appeal and sign its petition, encouraged by a supporter who has been coming to the square specifically to listen to its musicians for the past eight years. But there is also some hostility, with one man interrupting a protester mid-song to voice his disapproval. View this post on Instagram A post shared by •SHANILEE• (@sshanilee) 'I understand. If I was working somewhere and there's someone playing ''Wonderwall'' all day long I would go crazy,' says Mary Valiaka, music director at What Does Not, an organisation that champions London's grassroots musicians and backs the WSPA's cause. 'But there needs to be a middle ground'. She argues that pushing performers off the street will have a detrimental effect on London's (already dwindling) live music landscape as a whole. 'With busking, you learn how to engage, be charismatic and have a good presence,' Valiaka says. 'And that's 50 percent of what makes a good live performer. With busking under threat, how are people going to learn how to be a good live performer?' Kaos adds that central London streets provide an important stage for musicians from less privileged backgrounds. 'Working-class musicians don't get the opportunity to be musicians for a living very often. As working class performers, it allows you to have a platform in the first place.' Herrington is one such success story. Through his street performing, he got the 'opportunity of a lifetime' to tour with rising star Myles Smith. He was seen by a scout on the street and now plays keys in Smith's band. This summer he'll be playing at Glastonbury and on stadium stages across the globe supporting Ed Sheeran. 'I'm doing all this crazy stuff and it has all come from busking. I cannot quantify how impactful playing on the streets has been for my music career. I would not be where I am today without it.' Westminster city council has now appealed the Global Radio court ruling and is awaiting a response. A spokesperson told Time Out: 'Our view is the effect of the abatement order is too restrictive in controlling all buskers for the whole of Leicester Square and instead should have been limited to the single amplified pitch that was the basis of the Global Radio case. 'We believe that, with sensible measures in place, we can find a fair solution that minimises disruption while allowing performers to do what they do best.'
Daily Record
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Dakota Johnson in 'incredible pain' after split with Coldplay star Chris Martin
The pair were in a relationship for 8 years. Hollywood star Dakota Johnson has been left feeling "incredible pain" following her split from long-term boyfriend and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. The Fifty Shades star, 35, who also starred in last year's Madame Web, was reportedly determined to make the relationship work but, after almost eight years together, the pair confirmed they've gone their split. They found their relationship, which began in 2017, stalled, a source said, reports the Mirror. Insiders claim the split has hit Dakota hard. A source told The Sun: "Dakota wanted this relationship to work. She not only loves Chris, but his two kids, and that loss feels incredibly painful. The decision to end things was amicable, but Dakota is finding it hard. Over the past year, it became clear that their relationship had stalled and wasn't moving forwards." Coldplay's huge world tour continues and Dakota has been away on shoots for future films including Materialists and Verity recently. It is believed their flourishing careers have drove a wedge between the pair. "Settling down, as in Chris properly taking his foot off the pedal, isn't going to happen. And, ultimately, it was one of the many straws that broke the back of them," the source continued. A sombre Dakota was last snapped in New York City on Wednesday - without her engagement ring - just hours before the split news broke. However, the couple were hit by split rumours in August last year, speculation sources close to them denied. But now that decision has been reached with an insider confirming the " relationship had been over for a long time". Speaking earlier this week, the insider added: "They just haven't been able to figure out to make it official. Dakota held a flame for them to be together because she loved him so much and loved his kids so much. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. "Breakups aren't instant and they continued to breakup and makeup and sometimes things would work when they were away from each other, while they were working because absence makes the heart grow fonder, but then they'd get back together and little things just kept adding up to where they weren't right for each other anymore... Dakota is devastated that she isn't going to be around his kids as much anymore, but wants them to know that she is always there for them." Chris, 48, shares those two children with actress Gwyneth Paltrow, whom he married in December 2003. They divorced in 2016, a split Gwyneth described as "conscious uncoupling". The Grammy Award nominee, 52, has since gone on to marry writer and producer Brad Falchuk, whom Gwyneth met on the set of Glee when she had a recurring guest role in the musical comedy-drama.
