Wikipedia

Self-Titled (Marcus Mumford album)

(Redirected from Better Off High)

Self-Titled (stylised in parentheses) is the debut studio album by Marcus Mumford, released on 16 September 2022 via Island Records.[3] The album features guest appearances by Phoebe Bridgers, Brandi Carlile, Clairo, and Monica Martin,[4] in addition to being produced by Blake Mills.[5]

Self-Titled
The cursive handwritten title of the album, stylized in parentheses and all lowercase, in the middle of a light gray background.
Studio album by
Marcus Mumford
Released16 September 2022
StudioSound City, Los Angeles[1]
Length37:33
LabelIsland
ProducerBlake Mills
Singles from Self-Titled
  1. "Cannibal"
    Released: 14 July 2022
  2. "Grace"
    Released: 30 July 2022
  3. "Better Off High"
    Released: 25 August 2022[2]

Style and reception

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Self-Titled ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?6.3/10[7]
Metacritic67/100[6]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [8]
The Arts Desk     [9]
DIY     [10]
Evening Standard     [11]
The Independent     [12]
NME     [13]
Pitchfork6.0/10[14]
The Times     [15]
The Telegraph     [16]
Uncut5/10[17]

The Arts Desk's Barney Harsent opens by quoting opening track "Cannibal": "I can still taste you and I hate it/That wasn't a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it/You took the first slice of me and you ate it raw/Ripped at it with your teeth and your lips like a cannibal/You fucking animal." About these lines, Harsent says they "are the first indication this might not be the album you've been expecting. Even if you're already aware of the childhood abuse the singer suffered, and which inspired this collection songs, prior knowledge does little to prepare you for the visceral punch those words pack." Harsent goes on to describe the "particularly affecting sense of linear narrative" of second song "Grace", about Mumford's conversation with his mother about the abuse, saying that unlike "Cannibal", "Grace" "bursts into life like Tom Petty gatecrashing a therapy session" and is "unexpectedly and defiantly upbeat, the sound of a weight being lifted." Harsent summarises the album as "unlikely to win over any new fans", though it "may force a few naysayers to admit he's got a decent set of pipes", but "Ultimately, it's an album about redefining oneself in spite of life's labels and, at a time when we're surrounded on all sides by performative, shrieking grief, it feels genuine: raw, open and honest."[9]

DIY's Emma Swann compares the album to Vegemite and Marmite, calling it "the same, but different", noting that "when [Mumford] strips it right back" such as on "Prior Warning", "Dangerous Game", and the beginning of "Cannibal", there's "a warm quality to his songwriting that seeps through." But after "Cannibal", when "everything crashes, kitchen sink and all, as if years of headlining arenas trigger a fear response if too long passes before the 'epic' is switched on", we end up with an album which is "just Marcus leaving the kids at home for an evening, only to do the same exact thing just without a chorus of 'are we there yet', 'I'm bored', and 'well, actually...'"[10]

NME's Elizabeth Aubrey notes "Only Child" as "skeletally acoustic" and "resembl[ing] a devastating Paul McCartney ballad in both sound and structure", while "Prior Warning" depicts Mumford's spiral into "alcoholism and a dangerous cycle of self-medication" with "solitary strings" and "Better Off High" tells of an intervention staged by his family "as recounted on the album's most unsettling and experimental track". Aubrey also highlights Blake Mills's production as "exquisite throughout".[13]

Pitchfork's Stephen Thomas Erlewine calls the album "confounding", writing that "its strongest qualities as a record occasionally contradict the emotional thrust of the songs. Mills' production gives the recordings dimension and depth, inevitably tempering the pain at the heart of the songs." And while the "sumptuous, cinematic ... almost soothing" sound is "more appealing than the buttoned-up folk of Mumford & Sons, it also undercuts the rawer journey that (self-titled) could have been."[14] The Telegraph's Neil McCormick notes that "while the sound sometimes swells to an epic rush that pushes Mumford up to the top of his register, the tone of Self-Titled is more intimate than anything in his catalogue so far", with some songs "verg[ing] towards underpowered" and not "achiev[ing] transcendence", but "when it lands a blow, you know that you've been hit."[16]

Year-end lists

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Self-Titled on year-end lists
Publication # Ref.
The Economist — [18]
The Sunday Times 8 [19]

Track listing

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Self-Titled track listing
No.TitleWriter(s)Producer(s)Length
1."Cannibal"
Mills4:00
2."Grace"
  • Mumford
  • Mills
Mills4:13
3."Prior Warning"
3:30
4."Better Off High"
  • Mumford
  • Mills
  • Mills
  • Joseph Lorge
4:30
5."Only Child"
  • Mumford
  • Mills
  • Mills
  • Lorge
4:27
6."Dangerous Game" (featuring Clairo)
  • Mumford
  • Clairo
  • Mills
Mills3:01
7."Better Angels"
3:25
8."Go In Light" (featuring Monica Martin)
3:01
9."Stonecatcher" (featuring Phoebe Bridgers)
  • Mumford
  • Mills
Mills3:42
10."How" (with Brandi Carlile)
  • Mumford
  • Brandi Carlile
Mills3:44
Total length:37:33
Deluxe CD bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."Better Off High" (on my phone)3:33
12."Grace" (on my phone)3:23

Personnel

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Musicians

Technical

  • Patricia Sullivan – mastering
  • Blake Mills – mixing
  • Joseph Lorge – mixing, engineering
  • Brandon Bost – engineering (3), additional engineering (7, 8)
  • Danielle Goldsmith – engineering assistance
  • Gabe Lowry – engineering assistance
  • Logan Taylor – engineering assistance
  • Scott Moore – engineering assistance
  • Brian Rajaratnam – engineering assistance
  • Hotae Alexander Jang – engineering assistance

Visual

  • Todd Tourso – creative direction, package design
  • James Marcus Haney – photography
  • Robin Harper – photography

Charts

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Chart performance for Self-Titled
Chart (2022) Peak
position
Australian Digital Albums (ARIA)[20] 14
Australian Hitseekers Albums (ARIA)[20] 4
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[21] 11
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[22] 114
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[23] 23
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[24] 30
Irish Albums (OCC)[25] 25
Scottish Albums (OCC)[26] 4
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[27] 50
UK Albums (OCC)[28] 4
US Billboard 200[29] 53
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)[30] 3
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)[31] 9

References

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  1. ^ Gokhman, Roman (11 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford pulls back the curtain on childhood trauma, its repercussions". Riff. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  2. ^ Moreland, Quinn (25 August 2022). "Marcus Mumford Shares New Song "Better Off High"". Pitchfork. Retrieved 25 August 2022.
  3. ^ Aubrey, Elizabeth (14 July 2022). "Marcus Mumford announces details of debut solo album, (Self Titled)". NME. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  4. ^ Bikomo, Uvie (12 July 2022). "Marcus Mumford Enlists Brandi Carlile, Clairo, and Phoebe Bridgers on First Solo Album (Self-Titled)". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 14 July 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  5. ^ Lindert, Hattie (13 July 2022). "Marcus Mumford shares handwritten note announcing solo album". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  6. ^ "(Self-Titled) by Marcus Mumford Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  7. ^ "(Self-Titled) by Marcus Mumford reviews". AnyDecentMusic?. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  8. ^ Self-Titled at AllMusic. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  9. ^ a b Harsent, Barney (16 September 2022). "Album: Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)". The Arts Desk. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  10. ^ a b Swann, Emma (14 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled) review". DIY. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  11. ^ Smyth, David (15 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford – (self-titled) review: A deeply personal solo journey". Evening Standard. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  12. ^ Brown, Helen (15 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford review: Frontman confronts his abuse on a solo debut that feels (necessarily) heavy". The Independent. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  13. ^ a b Aubrey, Elizabeth (13 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled) review: well-crafted catharsis and collaborations". NME. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  14. ^ a b Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (20 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford: (Self-Titled) Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 20 September 2022.
  15. ^ Hodgkinson, Will (16 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford: Self-Titled review – a star relives childhood trauma". The Times. Retrieved 15 September 2022.
  16. ^ a b McCormick, Neil (16 September 2022). "Marcus Mumford confronts his demons, Rina Sawayama is Dr Frankenstein – the week's best albums". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  17. ^ Mueller, Andrew. "Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)". Uncut. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  18. ^ "The best albums of 2022". The Economist. 1 December 2022. Retrieved 1 December 2022.
  19. ^ Cairns, Dan; Dean, Jonathan (11 December 2022). "Ranked: 25 best albums of 2022 — from Taylor Swift to Arctic Monkeys". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  20. ^ a b "The ARIA Report: Week Commencing 26 September 2022". The ARIA Report. No. 1699. Australian Recording Industry Association. 26 September 2022. pp. 10, 24.
  21. ^ "Ultratop.be – Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  22. ^ "Ultratop.be – Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  23. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  24. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  25. ^ "Official Irish Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  26. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 September 2022.
  27. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Marcus Mumford – (Self-Titled)". Hung Medien. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  28. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
  29. ^ "Marcus Mumford Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  30. ^ "Marcus Mumford Chart History (Top Alternative Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
  31. ^ "Marcus Mumford Chart History (Top Rock Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
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