Mumford and Sons are beginning to bore me.

At the beginning of the 2010s, this band provided us with such hits as “Little Lion Man,” “The Cave,” and “I Will Wait,” all featuring their unique sound that blended rock and folk that still holds up today.  After their turning point in 2015 with their straight rock album Wilder Mind and their single “The Wolf” (a song I admittedly like), Mumford and Sons’s fortunes have steadily declined.  And they bottomed out this year with the mediocre single “Blind Leading the Blind,” a song that sounds like it was cut from the sessions for Babel then suddenly got revived as a single.  I don’t know what happened to this band, but “Blind Leading The Blind” is so boring.  Nothing about it stands out.  The music is a blander version of “I Will Wait,” and the message of love in the face of adversity doesn’t stick.  And this wasn’t the only song their frontman, Marcus Mumford, was featured on in the Alternative year-end list. 

“Lay Your Head On Me” – Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford

Alternative
#10 peak, #38 year-end

I’m not an expert on Major Lazer.  Shock, because pop and EDM music from the 2010’s isn’t my forte.  I spent the whole time EDM was big time-traveling to the 1990s to study British indie music.  But they are an EDM trio from Jamaica best known for their 2015 hit, “Lean On,” a collaboration with DJ Snake.  And going through their discography… 

Oh.  These guys did that “Bubble Butt” song with Bruno Mars too.  Joy.

Well, you won’t have to deal with lyrics liking a woman strictly for her butt here.  “Lay Your Head On Me” is a song telling a love interest that he will help her with any problem she faces, and that all she has to do whenever she faces a problem is cuddle close to him, as the title “lay your head on me” implies.  

Unfortunately, the lyrics don’t work.  Good intentions don’t automatically result in good lyrics, and these lyrics feel like nothing but empty platitudes of sentiment, as if Marcus Mumford read them off of a website on basic philosophy and put them in the song.  

And this too shall pass, this too shall pass
It won’t always be the same

And every single cut that you claim
Has led you this way

I said it’s okay, it’s alright
Someday, we will be fine

Anyone could have written these statements as lyrics.  There is nothing in these statements other than clichés, and this makes these lyrics ineffective as a romantic sentiment as a result.  And that’s before we get to the chorus:

So lay your head on me
Lay your head on me
Lay your head on me
Lay your head on me
Don’t be afraid, love

4/5ths of the chorus consists of the title.  This chorus is used three times in the song.  I expect a little more effort in your chorus writing than using the title of the song twelve times.  Jeez, this is barely above the level of a Black Eyed Peas song.

But the lyrics aren’t the biggest problem on “Lay Your Head On Me.”  It’s the music.  The first problem is that it sounds like musically, Major Lazer haven’t evolved past the 2010’s EDM craze.  Again, this wouldn’t be a problem if the music were good.  My favorite song of the 2010’s is “Uptown Funk,” a song that sounds like it was made in 1981 with its funk bassline and horn rhythms.  But this music… isn’t good.  The song combines Major Lazer’s standard electronic sound with Marcus Mumford’s acoustic guitar, and these things do not go together.  This brings us to the drop.  Occurring after the chorus, the drop falls flat on its face with no increase in volume or interesting dynamics.  We just hear a simple acoustic guitar riff, which sounds so digitized it may as well have been programmed on a computer, and some tropical percussion.  It is anticlimactic and tepid.

My biggest problem with the music however, isn’t with the actual execution of the music.  My question to Major Lazer and Marcus Mumford is this:  Who was this for?  This is technically an electronic track, but it’s too quiet and slow to dance too.  I can’t imagine you could play this song in the club, because music fans know better than to dance to a song this.  (Well, at least I hope so).  And the drop and overproduced guitar is going to turn off the folk and alternative crowd that would be interested in the inclusion of Marcus Mumford as vocalist.  If anything, after this song’s chart run has run its course, this would only get airplay on those soft rock radio stations wanting to play the safest music possible so as not to offend anyone.  Which means this music is for no one. 

Jeez, at least I knew what “Bubble Butt” was for.

IMAGE SOURCES

“Lay Your Head On Me” single cover from Wikimedia