Mumford & Sons will release their new album ‘Wilder Mind’ in May.
The ‘I Will Wait’ hitmakers, featuring Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane, have warned fans not to expect their trademark folk sound on their new LP because they decided to ditch the instruments they used on their first two albums, ‘Sigh No More (2009) and ‘Babel’ (2012), while working on their latest release.
Frontman Marcus said: "We felt that doing the same thing, or the same instrumentation again, just wasn’t for us.
"We’ve got a broader taste in music than just that."
Bassist Ted added: "None of us had really any interest in doing a sort of ‘Babel 2’. It was always going to be different."
The 12-track album, which will be released on May 5, will instead feature a move towards a more electronic sound, which is something that surprised some members of the band.
On walking into a studio filled with synthesizers, Ted said: "It was bizarre. I didn’t expect we were going to do the same thing again – but this was crazy!"
As well as the change in genre, the Grammy-winning group explained the highly-anticipated LP has been influenced by New York where Marcus and Winston live, as well as the themes of love and heartbreak, after both Ted and Winston ended long-term relationships.
Ted explained: "Half of the band has gone one way towards this sort of happy marriage, and the other half has gone the opposite direction to a lonely single existence.
"So there was sort of two people writing from one spectrum and two people writing from the opposite spectrum. Certainly the sentiments expressed on the album are all drawn from personal experience, unfortunately."
The tracklist for ‘Wilder Mind’ is as follows:
1. ‘Tompkins Square Park’
2. ‘Believe’
3. ‘The Wolf’
4. ‘Wilder Mind’
5. ‘Just Smoke’
6. ‘Monster’
7. ‘Snake Eyes’
8. ‘Broad-Shouldered Beasts’
9. ‘Cold Arms’
10. ‘Ditmas’
11. ‘Only Love’
12. ‘Hot Gates’
Mumford and Sons announce new album Wilder Mind
