Sigh No More

Album: Sigh No More (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This is the title track of the debut album of Mumford & Sons, a quartet who emerged from the London folk scene that produced Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale.
  • This song along with the rest of the album was produced by Markus Dravs (Arcade Fire, Bjork, The Maccabees), who actively encouraged the band to be more instinctive, to be more themselves, and strengthen their already-powerful musical personality.
  • This powerful track references the romantic language of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, as the four men sing together in glorious unison: "Love it will not betray you, dismay or enslave you / It will set you free / Be more like the man you were made to be."
  • The band's principal songwriter Marcus Mumford described to The Guardian February 11, 2010 this song's lyrics as "a deliberately spiritual thing but deliberately not a religious thing. I think faith is something beautiful, and something real, and something universal, or it can be." He added, "We all have our separate views on religion, but I think faith is something to be celebrated. I have my own personal views, they're still real to me, and I want to write about them."
  • Sigh No More sold over 1 million copies in both the UK and US. Mumford & Sons were the first English band to top the million mark in both territories with an album since Coldplay's 2009 long player Viva La Vida.

Comments: 2

  • Helena from Bucks, United KingdomMumford and Sons are definitely my favourite band and this song is amazing! I usually enjoy their more joyful songs (I Will Wait, Little Lion Man, Winter Winds, etc), but this is one of my favourites that they have done.
  • Megan from Stevenson, AlGod! I want to sing along with this EVERYTIME I hear it! LOVE IT!!!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New Words

Facebook, Bromance and Email - The First Songs To Use New WordsSong Writing

Where words like "email," "thirsty," "Twitter" and "gangsta" first showed up in songs, and which songs popularized them.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.

Adele

AdeleFact or Fiction

Despite her reticent personality, Adele's life and music are filled with intrigue. See if you can spot the true tales.

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"

Ian Anderson: "The delight in making music is that you don't have a formula"Songwriter Interviews

Ian talks about his 3 or 4 blatant attempts to write a pop song, and also the ones he most connected with, including "Locomotive Breath."

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.

Al Jourgensen of Ministry

Al Jourgensen of MinistrySongwriter Interviews

In the name of song explanation, Al talks about scoring heroin for William Burroughs, and that's not even the most shocking story in this one.