Mumford & the Electric Guitar–Playing Sons Were Awkward on Letterman
Reformed banjo enthusiasts Mumford & Sons scored some prime CBS real estate last night, and it was…interesting? David Letterman seemed to sense something was afoot from the get-go, announcing how the Mumfs made their network TV debut on Late Show "many, many years" [and as many pairs of pre-distressed suspenders] "ago."
Then the performance came. It was "Believe," one of the three singles that preceded this week's release of LP3, Wilder Mind, a.k.a. The One Without Any Acoustic Stuff. "Believe" and its ilk weren't as boring as they were strictly unnecessary. I pleaded for the band to cancel the charade before release day. They didn't. They didn't, and then they went on Letterman.
This clip has Marcus Mumford doing his usual thing where he's either super into the emotion of the song or super good at pretending he's in the emotion of the song. But those airy Chris Martin harmonies, the fact that each band member had so little to do after all those years of thumping and plucking and hopping—it all seemed so fucking awkward.
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