Mumford & Sons Return with ‘Wilder Mind’: Third Album Due Out In May

Jason Lipshutz
·3 min read
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Mumford & Sons will follow up their 2012 sophomore album Babel, which won the Grammy award for album of the year, this spring with Wilder Mind, their third effort for Glassnote Records. The new album is due out on May 4, the band announced on Monday (Mar. 2), and will support the album with more ‘Gentlemen of the Road’ stopover tour dates, with support from Foo Fighters, the Flaming Lips and many more.

Produced by James Ford, the 12-song Wilder Mind was written in London, Brooklyn and Texas, and recorded at AIR studios in London after being demoed at Aaron Dessner of the National‘s Brooklyn studio. The Babel sequel will represent a “significant departure” for the best-selling folk band, according to a press release.

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“Towards the end of the Babel tour, we’d always play new songs during soundchecks, and none of them featured the banjo, or a kick-drum,” says Marcus Mumford in a statement. “And demoing with Aaron [Dessner] meant that, when we took a break, we knew it wasn’t going to involve acoustic instruments. We didn’t say: ‘No acoustic instruments.’ But I think all of us had this desire to shake it up. The songwriting hasn’t changed drastically; it was led more by a desire to not do the same thing again. Plus, we fell back in love with drums! It’s as simple as that.”

Meanwhile, the Gentlemen of the Road stopovers will once again feature Mumford & Sons headlining two-day music festivals in smaller cities, with a rotating cast of support acts and an emphasis on local business incorporation, as the band successfully heralded in support of Babel in 2012-13. The first stopover will be held in Seaside Heights, NJ on June 5-6, and the expansive will continue through Iowa, Scotland, Washington state and Colorado this summer. The Foo Fighters will join Mumford & Sons in Walla Walla, Wash. on Aug. 14-15, and other GOTR participants include the Flaming Lips, Jenny Lewis, Primal Scream, My Morning Jacket and Alabama Shakes.

More stopover dates are forthcoming, and tickets go on sale here on Mar. 6. Mumford & Sons will also be headlining Bonnaroo, Reading & Leeds and a handful of other festivals in 2015.

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Check out the track list to Wilder Mind below, and the full lineups for the announced Gentlemen of the Road stopovers:

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
 
Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers:

Seaside Heights, New Jersey, USA
 
June 5-6 – Mumford & Sons, The Flaming Lips, Alabama Shakes, The Vaccines, The Maccabees, Dawes, The Very Best, Jenny Lewis, Little May, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blake Mills + more TBA
 
Waverly, Iowa, USA

June 19-20 – Mumford & Sons, The Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, Dawes, Jenny Lewis, The Maccabees, The Very Best, Rubblebucket, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blake Mills + more TBA
 
Aviemore, Scotland, UK

July 31-Aug. 1 – Mumford & Sons, Primal Scream, Simian Mobile Disco, Ben Howard, Lianne La Havas, The Maccabees, Jack Garratt, Honeyblood + more TBA
 
Walla Walla, Washington, USA

Aug. 14-15 – Mumford & Sons, Foo Fighters, The Flaming Lips, The Vaccines, Dawes, Jenny Lewis, TuneYards, James Vincent McMorrow, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blake Mills + more TBA
 
Salida, Colorado, USA

Aug. 21-22 – Mumford & Sons, The Flaming Lips, Dawes,
Jenny Lewis, The Vaccines, TuneYards, James Vincent McMorrow, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blake Mills + more TBA

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