Lover of the Light

Album: Babel (2012)
Charted: 97
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Songfacts®:

  • This boisterous bluegrass banger has been a regular in Mumford & Sons' live sets since early 2010. Keyboard player Ben Lovett told NME: "With Lover of the Light, people would say to us, 'Oh, I can't wait to hear that chorus on record.' But what they really meant by that is they can't wait to hear what they've already heard. But the songs gradually change - we push them into places that feel right for the four of us."
  • The song's music video was filmed in Wales. It stars and was directed by British actor Idris Elba, who is best known for playing Russell "Stringer" Bell in HBO's The Wire and the titular character in the BBC's mini-series Luther, for which he won a Golden Globe in 2012.

    The band do not feature in the clip at all, which was something they were happy about. "We met him (Elba) in a pub in London, and we had a chat, and talked about doing something that was, as a music video, very different from anything we've done before," Marcus Mumford told MTV News. "Firstly, we wouldn't be in it, which is a real relief to us, and secondly, it would be kind of observational, rather than narrative. Some people don't really understand it, which is great, because all that we do is very understandable ... so it's nice to have something that's a little more challenging to understand."

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