Before the “official” start of the Delta Tour, I had the opportunity to watch perform live Mumford & Sons at the Voodoo Fest in the mysterious and stylish city of New Orleans, where 3 songs from their upcoming album were played with freshness stumbling on a good way to everyone. Afterwards they embarked themselves in a long worldwide tour and a few days ago a new live EP from their Delta Tour was released; on this Discover Sunday let’s talk about it!
The opening track is “Slip Away – Live From Manchester” I really like the increasing rhythm of it; by the middle of the song there´s a small pause bridging to a full ride of emotion. The EP contains covers as well and the first appearance is a joint cover with their support band at the European shows, Gang of Youths with “Blood – Live From Stockholm” which was originally released by The Middle East. I feel it was a great tribute to the Australian band that could have been a solid indie rock act but for their own reasons they decided to break up back in 2011. In this live cover the trumpet followed by the violins have an important and characteristic sound; which substitutes the vocal chorus from the very original version from The Middle East; an extremely fun performance!
“Blind Leading The Blind- Live From Austin City Limits” is a powerful song which evokes some kind of protest itself; standing out from the usual Mumford & Sons style. I will skip the chronological order from the EP because I want to leave till the end the best song from it; please don’t get me wrong I believe The Beatles cover “ With A Little Help From My Friends – Live From London” sounds really good and the live version of “Awake My Soul” from their record Sigh No More is very intimate and made me feel I was at one of their shows again, but the Nine Inch Nails cover is just a gem.
“Hurt” was performed at Rock Werchter in Belgium having the basic elements from the original song but a well noted change that the covering artist used to give their own style. In this particular case is how well Marcus voice has a heartbreaking passion and the guitar solo by Winston at the end makes us feel so drowned and into it, besides the lyrics of the song are just something else: “What have I become? My sweetest friend, Everyone I know, Goes away in the end, And you could have it all, My empire of dirt, I will let you down, I will make you hurt” If I could start again, A million miles away, I would keep myself, I would find a way”. Deep, painful, personal and tragic.
This Live EP brings back so many good memories of the Delta Tour shows, and I can’t wait for a new album and watch perform live again Marcus and company or should I better say?… Mumford & Sons.