The Lumineers are awesome - that is all. If you’ve overlooked them because you don’t like “Stomp Clap Hey,” you are missing out on truly excellent songwriting and musicianship, and their vibe and variety has grown quite a bit since the first album. They are not Mumford & Sons.
For example, this Dylan-esque parable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLZZ06O1Dpk
Love Trash Theory. Even if I’m familiar with the genre or artist he’s covering this month, I still usually learn something.
I didn’t hate what became “stomp clap hey” when it first popped up. It was inoffensive, but I didn’t love it. By the time it was popular I began to spin the dial on new songs just as soon as the chorus began being sung by a shout-y group. That trend made its way into general pop music for awhile, too.
I mean, let’s be honest. That could just as easily be the name of one single band.
You know, I’ve never really thought of Of Monsters and Men as being part of this genre. They’re more Euro-Weirdos, like their countrywoman Bjork.
I suspect that they get lumped in, at least in part, because their first hit here in the U.S., “Little Talks,” feels like it fits in the genre (complete with the repeated “hey!”). I bought that album based on liking that song, and while I also enjoy the rest of the album, the other songs sound quite different from “Little Talks.”
My favorite example is “S.O.B.,” the first hit single by Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats:
That’s another song which I love. I’m kind of mixed on the rest of Rateliff’s work (some I like, some I don’t), but that song just rocks.
Stomp Clap Hey is pretty good, but I prefer BWOW.
Good point - and I bought the album, too.
Now that I think of it, it was quite possibly the last album I ever bought.
I kinda think they escape the genre by actually having soul (they were released on Stax, after all). But there’s certainly plenty of clapping and stomping going on there. So, I could see someone putting them in it. My fave of theirs is probably still “I Need Never Get Old”. It still makes me tear up.
Nice to hear that Motown riffs are still popular.
One of my more surreal music moments happened when I went up to Austin in 2012 on a Saturday during SXSW and randomly came across Mumford and Sons (who I had heard but not really knew anything about) playing in a open field on the UT campus (setlist.fm tells me it was the LBJ Library Lawn Mumford & Sons Concert Setlist at SXSW 2012 on March 17, 2012 | setlist.fm). Earlier in the evening I saw Haim play amongst about 30 people ( HAIM Concert Setlist at SXSW 2012 on March 17, 2012 | setlist.fm ). Haim I guess could be female stomp clap coincidencally, I suppose, or at least their early stuff.