Mumford's

“Triple Trinities”, Mumford’s brand new album, is epic. The nine songs on the album converse with one another, all of them focused around the single theme of religion, looking for the soft spots to sink their teeth into, to maybe find some answers to all the questions circling above them like vultures. The characters in the songs – preachers, atheists, God Himself, and an Antichrist or two – are three-dimensional and compelling. You might not be able to finish listening to it all in one sitting, all the narrators are so frustratingly human.

Obviously, this is not the first religiously themed record of all time. “Triple Trinities”, fortunately, recognizes this. The songs here can be seen as catalogs, as composites of what preceded it. It preserves the world-ending paranoia of The Thermals’ “The Body, The Blood, The Machine.” Yet it also holds on to the upbeat mythologizing of Page France’s “Hello, Dear Wind.” Most significantly, it recalls the real flesh and blood human tragedy of Leonard Cohen’s best work*, all of its sincere, wide-eyed struggle against the darkness, all of its laughing in the face of that very same darkness.

In the first song, “Communion”, Nate Logsdon’s voice resides right in the middle of the stereo image, framed by instruments. Isolated, but still dominating everything else in the song – a perfect analogy to God. As the record moves forward, the power structure of “Voice > Instruments” is subverted. “Church Song”, “Father in the Sky”, and “Stickbag” – the most sarcastic songs on the album – feature a horn section so powerful, you’d believe they truly could topple the Walls of Jericho.

The Voice / Instrument relationship is thus made equivalent to the Spirit / Body relationship. On “Tear These Mountains Down”, the narrator professes his wish to tell you “we are only bodies, we have no soul.” He then sings that “we’re gonna make a joyful sound, to kill all gods.” And when Kai Tanaka ends the song with an excellent blues guitar solo, you believe him. You really believe him.

Starting with the spark of a chance encounter with Don Mumford, a legendary (yet down on his luck) jazz drummer, the story of Mumford’s is also epic. According to saxophonist Kate Kennedy’s account, before recruiting some of Mumford’s founding members, Mr. Mumford was “holding a conversation with himself in which his long-held conviction that for artists, opportunities are sent from the Creator that enable them to create was being challenged.” With Triple Trinities, Mumford’s has explored Don’s conviction and has also paid homage to creators everywhere – human, supernatural, and everything in between.

*Note: All of Leonard Cohen’s work is Leonard Cohen’s best work. - KRUI FM

There is a physical beauty to Ames band Mumford’s. Their live show is musical performance art in its purest and greatest form. Sweat is poured, rings are kissed, shirts (and on one special occasion a beard and a couple feet of hair) are shed, hoops are hula-ed, and joy is exhumed. They are one of those bands, that if you see their name on a bill, you mustn’t miss, local or not. The instruments and antics are so loud and powerful, though that the message of the music can sometimes be missed (or perhaps blissfully ignored). So, I was a bit nervous before listening to their recorded material, safely removed from lead singer Nate Logsdon’s suspender covered nipples, that the whole facade would be blown and one of the most amazing bands I had ever seen would be nothing but sound and fury signifying nothing, or even worse, signifying boredom.
I am proud to say that Mumford’s LP “Triple Trinities” also shows that there is an intellectual beauty behind their amazing stage performance. This is an album that is so obvious in its tackling of religion that some of the song titles almost act as spoiler alerts (Father in the Sky, Trickster St. Peter, Antichrist) but this isn’t just some sort of atheist manifesto hidden amongst catchy horns and rapid fire lyrics, there is real substance and thought mixed in.
Upon first listen I thought for sure this album was a straight dis on Christianity and all of the people who follow it. But as I listened a second and third time, I realized that it isn’t that at all. It tells an overarching story about a person’s struggle to know exactly what is, or isn’t, out there. It uses cynicism, logic, sarcasm, faith and hope to get you to think about the topic at hand and allow you to form your own opinion. Not once judging and always making you think.
Logsdon’s voice gets a workout from track 1 to track 9 creating different characters to showcase the debate. He starts with soulful introspection on opener “Communion” then immediately to an almost Broadway jokester (with a hint of “Weird” Al Yankovic) in “Church Song” to carnival barker/speed emcee on “Father in the Sky” and “Trickster St. Peter” then to a sort of country-western near-twang with “Tear These Mountains Down”. The ebbs and flows of tone can have a bit of a whiplash effect though, as I thought a couple of the songs would’ve been slightly more effective if the vocal gymnastics were turned down just a little, specifically track 8 “The Devil.” However the slightly overdone “Devil” does give way to the beautiful and powerful “Holy Trinity” easily the most splendid track on the album.
But this album doesn’t just succeed on lyrical content, it is also musically very strong. The horns are tight and not overdone to the point of this being a ska band but not subdued enough to be distracting or loud enough to sound like bad 80’s pop. There are times when they hit the speed and joy of Operation Ivy while also creating the ambiance of Neutral Milk Hotel. Also, guitarist Kai Tanaka is almost criminally underused. His work on “Father“ and “St. Peter“ should be mentioned as well as the solo at the end of “Mountains”.
“Triple Trinities” doesn’t quite reach the manic joy and overwhelming atmosphere that Mumford’s live show does. It does, however, have enough substance to prove that Mumford’s isn’t just a vapid beauty queen of a band relying on looks to overcome an intelligence deficiency. There is true talent and intelligence behind the hula hoops and priest outfits. “Triple Trinities” is well worth listening to, even if you don’t get to see Nate Logsdon without a shirt. - desmoinesisnotboring.com