“On a very basic level, this song exploits my love for romping banjo and maniacally-strummed acoustic guitar and some very wisely-used, emphatic but decidedly un-melodramatic piano. It also nicely plays on my attraction to raggedy voices singing in urgent harmony about life and love and hope and pride and messing up and being happy and moving on. But it also dallies with my passing interest in folk that’s little meatier, a little meaner, with its bass line and kicky, walloping drum that both sneak in the back way and for a while seem kind of secondary to all the needy strings and voices pushing around up front. You’ll miss it completely if you’re listening on your crappy, treble-y laptop speakers, like I was at first. I mean, I love me some folky shit, but I am not used to it having a big back end, not used needing a subwoofer to get the true effect. And you won’t be missing much for the first part of the song, not until around two minutes and eighteen seconds in, when Marcus Mumford asks, for the second time, ‘Didn’t I, my dear?’ and everything falls away except that dark, creeping thrum.”
- Rachael Maddux, associate editor at Paste Magazine, on the Mumford & Son’s song “Little Lion Man”
