Today's Pick

Imagine Dragons returned and give us a wild ride with a new video for "I Bet My Life," the first taste of alternative rock band's as-yet untitled sophomore LP, and the sing-a-long anthem finds the Las Vegas-based rockers in a much mellower mood. The striking clip is a visual feast and a surreal odyssey with a harrowing near-death experience. Directed by Jodeb and stars Spider-Man 2 actor Dane DeHaan, who getting into a fist fight on the shores above the Theodore Roosevelt Dam. Things get stranger from there.
The epic track is full of the bombastic, pounding percussion with a slightly folkier vibe than typified the four-piece's past hits like "Radioactive," and transitions from somewhat apprehensive verses to loud and celebratory choruses. "This song is about the relationship I've had with my parents throughout the years," frontman Dan Reynolds explained. "At times it's been strained and difficult, but in the end, 'I Bet My Life' celebrates the bond that we still hold on to."
The clip captures the emotion of the song, as two young rascals fight, forcing one into the Roosevelt Dam and sending him on a glorious, bizarre adventure. The two dastardly fellows, who are dressed in old-timey clothes despite the video being set in relatively modern times, get into a scuffle near the dam, sending one into the raging, flowing river. he young gent is then sent into an expansive underground tunnel, to an otherworldly journey.
The first stop is an underwater house that was seemingly abandoned years ago. Though the chairs are up on the table and everything is covered in protective white sheets, there is a cozy bed for which the boy can slumber on, before he wakes up... only to find himself in a boat. From there, he sails away to freedom against the river until he tumbles over a waterfall. Though that only lands him in the hands of an adoring crowd. But, the otherworldly adventure was just that, a dream. And the boy awakes at the base of the waterfall, in the arms of his enemy. Was it heaven? Was a life actually bet?

Double Brit-winner Ben Howard returns and makes his directorial debut with the dreamy video for "I Forget Where We Were," the title track to his brand new sweeping sophomore album. The 27-year-old English folkie and troubadour has several EPs and a 2011 album to his name, but this follow-up is his strongest statement yet, as he externalizes a kind of inner madness while his imagery remains suitably poetic.
It's anyone's guess as to exactly how he has done it, but London-based southpaw singer-songwriter has found himself the antidote to second album syndrome, which is a grand, serious affair and contemplate the pain of love, the restless spirit, and the disquieting sense of falling short. Howard strikes a sure-footed balance between the lilting ballads we've come to expect from past releases and more haunting dirges that carry the weight of remorse. "I Forget Where We Were" delivers a darker Howard, one who embraces loneliness and disappointment instead of shying away from them. As mild as the music might often sound, this is an album that cuts deep.
Howard's intricately picked acoustic is still in the mix, but he seems to have discovered the appeal of electric instrumentation and an effects box, conjuring metallic notes that cascade around each other, while his mournful voice is layered with shadow harmonies. "I Forget Where We Were" has an evocative feel, a string of songs that seem to form themselves rather than being transcribed from a songbook. The sensibility is darker, richer and stranger. It may lack the definition of his debut, but the Brit-winning artist's latest evokes something more ambiguously potent.
Moody, disaffected and gutsy, the title track, "I Forget Where We Were," sees Howard returning with a more electronic-guitar influenced set of songs. The track blends Howard's naturalistic references with the lyrics of a potentially doomed love song. It takes the listener on an expedition through the thoughts of Howard, bringing back that near personal relationship he can create with listeners. When listening, I find it so easy to pretend that Howard is communicating only with me, yet this is part of the personal bubble he builds with every listener. The video is Howard's directorial debut and follows a somber couple for a very serious day at the beach.

First Aid Kit get a natural yet vintage makeover in the folk-pop Swedish duo's new autumnal video for "Stay Gold," the Americana hymn that serves as the title track from Swedish indie folk duo's third studio album, a 13-piece orchestra and masters the art of sophisticated sadness which is more about their own life than their previous ones. For First Aid Kit, gold isn’t about specie, fame, or success. It's something much more precious. The singing and songwriting sisters have a knack for transmuting the common into the extraordinary.
Swedish sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg have taken what, in the era of TV talent shows and Internet stars, has become a rare path to major-label success. Finds their close harmonies as honey-drenched as ever, "Stay Gold" is a brief cloud over a lovely record that is the aural equivalent of lying in a sunny meadow, with rich texture of classic country instrumentation and stirring string arrangements, matching their soaring vocal melodies.
Like their "My Silver Lining" clip, this one gets lots of mileage from images of both sisters breezing through the shadowy and saturated woodsy landscapes. Inspired by the song itself, which is about fleeting beauty and potential futility and recounts the impermanence of all things such as love and friendship, the Alex Southam-directed clip, shot on the picturesque Swedish island of Gotland with vintage filmmaking, is strewn with a handful of contrasting and albeit gorgeous. There are radiant suns/shadowy cliffs; pristine waves/dead autumn leaves; and the soft glow of twilight/the cold stillness of night. The video matches perfectly with the ethereal and soothing sound that First Aid Kit are known for.

As if "The Fault in Our Stars" didn't make fans weep enough in theaters, or if you still have any tears left after seeing the film, Birdy is out with an intimate music video for the super emotional ballad "Not For Angels," her contribution to the film's soundtrack. Featured at the end of the movie when Hazel leaves Gus' funeral and thankfully the new clip avoids footage from the movie - the sweet, sad song stands on its own. Though Birdy is still only 18-year-old, hearing her voice quiver through her own words is at once powerful and soothing.
Birdy contributed three three songs to soundtrack of blockbuster movie, but "Not About Angels" has connected with moviegoers the most with almost haunting mix of simple piano and vocals. The warm reception could have something to do with the fact that Birdy wrote it from the perspective of the characters in the film. In a recent interview, she revealed that this track was completely inspired by the film's storyline. "For the lyrics I was inspired by the way they speak to each other," Birdy says. "I was in tears when they read the book, and was so inspired by how the characters communicate."
The music supervisor Season Kent told The Huffington Post that the British singer was "so obsessed with the movie and the book." The song works because, as Kent said, "There's this whole back and forth that Gus and Hazel have about believing in God and believing in angels, and that's what her song is about: it's not about angels, it's about us." If you fancy a good cry, here's a couple of the lyrics for you: "We know full well there's just time, so is it wrong to toss this line? If your heart was full of love, could you give it up? 'Cause what about angels, they will come, they will go, make us special. Don't give me up..."
Given that "Not About Angels" is shaping up to be Birdy's much-deserved breakthrough hit in America, it was only a matter of time before it got a suitably moving video. Take in the beautiful simplicity of this video, which featuring Birdy belting the song at a baby grand piano with her reflection and a dazzling view of the Los Angeles cityscape behind her. Birdy's handwriting and floating notebook drawings bring the characters' tragic love in the film to life. That's really all you need for a song this subtle and beautiful.

Swedish indie folk-pop duo First Aid Kit made big waves around the world in 2012 when haunting single "Wolf" caught the attention of indie bloggers and alternative radio stations. The Söderberg sisters Klara and Johanna are now gearing up to release their upcoming third LP, "Stay Gold," due June 10 and unveiled new summery video for sublime lead single/album opener "My Silver Lining," a song about finding yourself on the road, where the Soderberg sisters sing about voices calling and "keep on, keepin' on." It sounds simple enough, but that's what they do best: explore simple Americana notions through lush harmonies.

It's hard to image a more lush or evocative summer soundtrack than First Aid Kit's latest haunting country tune. Drenched in strings, "My Silver Lining" is true to the band's folk roots but their canvas is now a little broader musically and that chorus/those gorgeous harmonies could well find a home on pop radio. "It's a song about searching for a reason to keep on keeping on, to find that good that comes with the bad," the Americana-styled folk-harmonizing sisters explained in a press release about their brilliant folk-pop anthem. "We wanted to create a piece that was dark yet uplifting at the same time."
"My Silver Lining" marries disco, folk and a western twang for a distinctly vintage country swing vibe that seems to pay homage to both Harry Nilsson and Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac. Here, First Aid Kit further refine their blend of rootsy Americana, channeling their inner Johnny Cash over a mix of rumbling guitars and sweeping strings. While the orchestration lends a sense of grandiosity and romanticism, the siblings remain thoroughly connected to folk and country's core of straight-ahead heartache and forlorn, even amid somewhat more optimistic fare.
Filmed at the Paramour Mansion in Silver Lake, L.A. by Elliott Sellers, the visually lush clip followed by ghostly versions of themselves and their travels as the ornate mansion seems to come alive, doors open unexpectedly, dishes crash, summoning lightning with their hands and everything is a little hazy. It fits perfectly with unsteadying feel to the song's woozy, eerie Americana vibe. "We wanted to create an intriguing and mysterious world where everything is slightly off and the mansion slowly comes to life," said the sisters. "The idea of things in life changing, even scaring you, but still having to carrying on despite it all is a theme in the song, which we wanted to convey in the video."

Jake Bugg has just released a music visual for his latest single "A Song About Love," the third release off Bugg's sophomore album "Shangri La." The Nottingham-based singer/songwriter is still only 19-years-old, yet here he is with his second album already and, on the back of the acclaim he achieved on his self-titled debut album, the speedy release of "Shangri-La" is a promising sign that Bugg is bursting with ideas and has no plans of sitting back on top of his one Mercury nomination.
To be blunt, none of "Shangri-La" ever really steps too far from the safety zone of his debut, but Bugg is being fast-tracked by his label into producing new material, which is probably why the new album sounds so recycled. Should he be given the chance to master his penmanship and emulate his peers' musicianship, Bugg could genuinely live up to his hype and his potential within his next few releases. On "Shangri-La," however, Bugg is still searching for that special something and. providing he manages to find anything at all by the time he begins working on album number three, he could very well validate himself as a serious performer for years to come.
Following a similar structure some of the softer tracks heard in his debut, the new tune "A Song About Love," is a slow paced love ballad, in contrast to his rocking "Messed Up Kids." Bugg wrote this love ballad with two bars that last one beat too long before the chorus. It gave the session musicians who played on it a lot of trouble to work out. The British rocker is mainly self-taught; his only music training was a music technology course at college that he dropped out from at the age of 16.
According to an interview with the NME, Bugg didn't realize when he wrote this song that it would be difficult for his backing musicians to play, as he's never learnt how to read music. A dose of heartfelt romance is provided with "A Song About Love," where Bugg's honest emotions seem to pour out of this melancholy song. Bugg's versatility is showcased here and "A Song About Love" holds up just fine. He can easily bounce from rollicking folk to somber love tunes and back again. It Showing a more emotive side and a softer side of the young indie rocker. The video, showing a more sentimental side than we usually see of the Nottingham teenager, as he laments in his heartachey tune.

The Civil Wars used lost footage from their trip to Paris in March 2011 for "Dust to Dust," the third single off their self-titled sophomore album released last August. The song was used in the 2013 horror/drama remake "Carrie," as well as the ABC Family TV Show, "Ravenswood." In their new video, the defunct folk duo Joy Williams and John Paul White take to the streets of Paris, where we find White alone in a cafe, sipping espresso and penning a letter he ultimately hesitates to send once at the mailbox. His former bandmate Williams is also alone with her thoughts, sipping wine at a bar.
But they're not kept apart for long. Much of the video intersperses shots of the two in the studio together with scenes of them roaming the Paris streets. And for a moment, they look to be in perfect harmony. Even the most romantic city in the world can feel lonesome and uninviting, as you can see in The Civil Wars' latest video, "Dust to Dust." Set in Paris on a drab winter day, the embattled bandmates go about their separate yet hopelessly-intertwined lives, all the while pining for something more.The folk band duo wrote this anthem for the lonely late one night in Birmingham, England. "Sometimes you come across somebody who thinks they are hiding their pain, but if we are all honest, nobody is very good at it," Williams explained. "You're like a mirror, reflecting me / Takes one to know one, so take it from me." According to Williams, when she penned this song with White, they "decided to change the pronoun at the end of the song. We wanted to represent that we all experience loneliness in our lives."
The video's footage was filmed in Paris by Becky Fluke in March 2011 and at The Art House studio by 1504 Pictures in September 2012. Sung in a near-whisper and backed by a tiptoeing combination of guitar and drums, the two characters in the song seem almost afraid to let their guard down. Since the duo announced their abrupt hiatus in the middle of their European tour last November, that tension probably didn't require a lot of acting. "When we re-discovered what we'd once thought to be lost footage from two years ago, these forgotten images from a trip to Paris strangely seemed fitting for the feel of 'Dust To Dust,' says Williams. "For me, it's like stepping back in time."

If being a scarily talented 17-year-old wasn't enough to be going on with, Birdy is back with a brand new and totally awesome video for her new single, "Light Me Up," the latest cut to be lifted from the British singer/songwriter's recent UK Top 10 sophomore album, "Fire Within," which dropped in September. This will be the third song released from the new album, and follows the singles "Wings" and "All You Never Say." Birdy says that the new track takes the album in an "unexpected 80s direction," will release on December 9 via 14th Floor/Atlantic Records.
Birdy continues her unique sound in this latest release, moving between melancholic verse and its upbeat pop chorus with her typical indie style. After releasing a slew of piano driven ballads, Birdy finally loosens up and puts out this joyous upbeat number. It's good to hear her open up her vocals for a change and show off that amazing range. Speaking about the new single, an empowering and upbeat track about the feeling of being close to and completely in tune with someone, which Birdy worked on with producer Rich Costey and Ryan Tedder. Birdy says "I'm really excited about releasing 'Light Me Up.' It has a bit of an 80's feel and it's really up-beat, it's a sound that no one's heard from me before. I can't wait to share the video with you all!"
Showing 'the real you' on your debut can be a tough, uphill battle for most artists. The old saying goes that "you've got your entire life to write your first album." But when Birdy came to the world's attention, she was only 15-year-old. Her first single, a cover of Bon Iver's "Skinny Love," was charted across the world and went platinum. Now though, the teen folk-pop sensation is ready to strike out on her own and let people get to see the 'real' her. Her new album "Fire Within" consists of her own original material and sees Birdy come to the forefront as a songwriter in her own right.
The accompanying music video starts casually enough, with Birdy stirring things up and walking through the streets of East London, singing and minding her own business. That is until a fairly mysterious and quite good looking stranger decides to chase her. Naturally they do what any self-respecting newly acquainted couple would and head for a market, to check out the selection of doughnuts and bagels hanging from a string on the ceiling. Sounds like the perfect date, no? The young singer/songwriter's gallivanting through one of the most colorful lighted flea market of sorts around with her love interest, and it's fitting for such a live-wire of an artist as she is.

Mumford & Sons has unveiled the music video for their track "Hopeless Wanderer," the most recent single off of Mumford & Son' Grammy winning sophomore album "Babel," but fans won't get to see any of the band members in it. Instead, they will be treated to the funny antics of four comedians from former "Saturday Night Live" cast members Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, Will Forte and Ed Helms as stand-ins for the band members, and in the process proves the British folk rockers have a great sense of humor. The result is by far the best Mumford & Son video yet, and it quickly went viral.
"Hopeless Wanderer" finds frontman Marcus Mumford longing for loved ones left behind whilst on the road. The track originated with a piano part created by the band's Ben Lovett when the group was staying in a small house in Nashville, Tennessee in early 2011. "My bedroom was right next to the living room, where we had a little setup," recalled Mumford to American Songwriter of overhearing Lovett tinkering the ivories. "I was in bed, hungover, and I thought, 'F**k, I need to get in that room, because that sounds amazing.' We wrote the song that day."
The clip all opens calmly enough, with the sun's glare and a muted color palette obscuring who might actually be performing. It's totally plausible that Mumford & Son would be the stars of this show. Until the one-minute mark, when it's revealed that lip-syncing along to the words from the song, is the aforementioned comedic quartet, satirizes the band members, from their outfits to even the necessary facial hair and old-timey clothes to pull off the routine. From their respective stringed instruments down to the way the band performs their heart out, the funny men give on the dot impressions.
The four do a convincing enough job of pretending to play things such as the piano, guitar, banjo, stand-up bass, and accordion. Not that there isn't a decent amount of foolery; Sudeikis, as Marcus, struggles to play guitar while carrying a bass drum on his back; the four also squeeze into a tiny boat while playing in the middle of a pond. The emotion of it all starts to peak as tears are shed and kisses are exchanged. But there are still beers to to cheer and instruments to bust up in a barn-burning finale highlighted by Bateman's banjo picking and Forte's bass. They do give a new meaning to the hook, "Hold me fast/ Hold me fast/ Cause I'm a hopeless wanderer."

Mumford & Sons get repetitive and the formula works as they deliver another energetic performance in the music video for their new single "Babel," title track and the fourth single from English indie folk rock band's sophomore album, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. No surprises, just more singalong anthems for fair-weather festival-goers. It's a beautiful twist on a performance video and one that captures the passion and enthusiasm frontman Marcus Mumford, pianist Ben Lovett, banjo player Winston Marshall and bassist Ted Dwane all bring to their playing.
Mumford & Sons' folk-tinged, banjo-plucking austerity indie has made them rich and successful beyond their wildest dreams. And "Babel" bowls along with the ebullient energy one expects of Mumford & Sons, like a cider-soused hoedown at an after-hours lock-in. They are the epitome of a Marmite band, vilified for their privileged background and narrow vision of folk music, celebrated for their spit'n'sawdust energy and biblical framing of love. "Babel," is more than just a decent nu-folk album, but also a great pop album, will only entrench these positions. They manage to play loudly and boisterously, without ever making the descent into cacophony.
The title-track, a mandolin stomp-thrash, opens proceedings with Mumford claiming "I ain't ever lived a year better spent in love." This seems to serve as a conceptual thread for the album as a whole, as successive songs track the turbulent progress of his heart. The title-track was named after the Genesis story about the origin of different languages. String bassist and guitarist Ted Dwayne told Rolling Stone that the song speaks about human discontent, one of the themes of the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel.
Though the title-track forcefully kicks-open the door to their Grammy-winning No.1 album, the new clip settles for an intimate and stripped-down atmosphere. Shot in San Francisco, the Sam Jones-directed black-and white clip sees the folk-rock quartet on an infinite loop, with each pouring his entire body into the music on every glimpse, performing the song in a derelict music hall, while a camera swirls around in a circle to catch them over and over again in different aspects of performance mode. Despite no audience, Mumford & Sons play with enough ferocity and stomping to tear down the metaphorical walls and sings about in the bridge of the track. It shows just how unending their cycle truly is, and well, it works on an entirely different level.

A bit of good news for folky roots-music fans, The Civil Wars are back with a studio cut clip for their new single, "The One That Got Away," the lead single off their upcoming sophomore self-titled album, is due out August 6. The acclaim for country-folk duo The Civil Wars is probably as high today as it's ever been. They've won Grammys, they've recorded with T-Bone Burnett and Taylor Swift, and their debut album "Barton Hollow" has been certified Gold. The trouble is, the two bandmates Joy Williams and John Paul White appear not to be in a place where they can truly enjoy their well-earned success.
In creating the song, Williams and White just poured the amazing passion they have for music and the band as well as all of the angst and stress they have been feeling into one perfect song about lost love. It is completely stripped of any excessive production so prevalent in music today. What we get is a heartbreaking story about the two people who are singing. The tension builds to the chorus where they end up wailing in a beautifully haunting harmony, "Oh, I wish I'd never, ever seen your face," Williams sings over hard-strummed acoustic guitar, "I wish you were the one that got away."
And while the song is simplistic in its approach, so is the video for this studio cut. It isn't high concept but is as painful as it is beautiful. More of a behind-the-scenes-type presentation, it consists mostly of a series of shots showing Williams and White recording the song in the studio. But it's a painful video to watch because it gets directly at your heart and stays there, as it seems to show that whatever rift exists between these two talented musicians is heartbreakingly real. For starters, as Williams and White harmonize beautifully on the song's often-painful lyrics, they never look each other in the eye. Glances are made back and forth, but there's a connection that's missing.
The Civil Wars have put everything they've got into their new single, "The One That Got Away." What we get is an amazing look at the anatomy of a band on the verge of a break-up. Then again, perhaps we shouldn't get carried away just yet: Judging by "The One That Got Away," not everything is heirloom peaches and artisanal cream between Williams and White now. Whether this is manufactured to emphasize the melancholy mood of the song, or is simply the way things are between them these days, we may never quite know. But either way, "The One That Got Away" is a haunting song you won't soon forget.

Ed Sheeran managed to rise above all the EDM-influenced noise last year. The 22-year-old Brit singer's debut moody, acoustic ballad, "The A Team," seems like an unlikely pop hit given Top 40's obsession with club music and up-tempo jams. But somehow, its heavy topics under a beautiful folky melodic canopy and off-kilter acoustics won pop fans over after its big release in 2012, and in the process, nabbed itself a 2013 Grammy Awards nomination for "Song of the Year!"
Musically, this beautiful melodic track "The A Team," is particularly dark lyrical content, yet overwhelmingly tuneful slice of jazz-folk, and was deeply inspired by a true story after Sheehan meeting a young girl called "Angel," whilst volunteering at a Crisis homeless shelter when he was 18 at the time and kind of quite naive. Built on palm-muted guitars and a simmering string arrangement, Sheehan chronicles girl's descent into an endless web of drug addiction and prostitution.
In a interview with Billboard, Sheehan explained the song's title. "A drug like crack cocaine is called a 'class A' drug. That's in the same category as heroin. Instead of making it clear and just saying what the problem was, I'd say, 'She's in the 'class A' team.' It was kind of my way of covering up (a person's addiction), I guess, making it a bit more subtle." Yes, Sheehan has an unflinching eye for subtle details and colorful imagery, and his music is full of soulful vocal runs and patient atmosphere. Although the subject matter of "The A Team" isn't exactly radio-friendly, the hook sure is.
Cost only £20, Sheehan shot clip with young photographer Ruskin Kyle and stars actresses Selina MacDonald as "Angel," and it narrates the story of "Angel" addicted to drugs, living on the streets of London. She tried to sell magazines for money, but only managed to sell one to the artist of the song, Ed Sheeran. "Angel" struggled so much that she resorted to selling her body to earn money. She may not have loved it, but it provided an income in general for the young woman. Later on, the pain became too much for her to bear and she just wanted to end it all. She traded in her "dirty" money for drugs, referencing the lyric and in the end, she succumbs to her drug abuse.

British indie singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin has finally given us something else to hold onto while we anxiously wait for the release of her debut album with a beautiful new version music video for her track "Panic Cord," the third single off the 20-year-old's upcoming debut, "English Rain" due on May 13. "Panic Cord" written by herself, and the original version of the track was taken from her 2011 second EP, "Never Fade," which document four things that have happened to her and she owes the complete honestly and detail in return for the amazing support she have received.

Aplin post on her blog: "'Panic Cord' is the ONLY song on the EP that is about a relationship, and we weren't even officially' together but the situation still really got to me. I had never ever felt guilty for turning someone down before and it was the first time I had experienced it. 'Panic Cord' is pretty much about when someone likes you more than you like them. But to the extent where they'd literally do anything for you and as much as you want to, you just can't do it back. I was so frustrated and angry with myself for letting down someone who was perfect, and was finding it hard to live with the temporary guilt of throwing someones feelings back at their face after they had completely spilled themselves out to you.
During turning this person away, it got weirder. Where they were doing everything in their power to keep me and I just didn't understand why, I felt like a complete witch and found myself getting bored of all the lovely things this person was doing for me. I just couldn't comprehend how or why someone would do something amazing for me, and get no reaction from me and still enjoy doing it and carrying on. He told me that he had 'kept a box of our memories' (we're just a box of souvenirs...) in the hope that it could change my mind. I was so confused and it really opened my eyes. I had no memories of this person in my head, but to them we were something amazing. I was so hurt by the fact I had to let someone down, and almost felt as if i was to blame for their sadness, even though i was completely honest the whole time."
The accompanying music video sees Aplin hanging out with her boyfriend, but later shows her falling out with him. As Aplin going through a relationship she had that has now turned into "a box of souvenirs." Throughout the track she tries to figure it out saying "Maybe I'm the one to blame" because "Maybe [she] pulled the panic cord." Her light and airy vocals make this song a little happier than what it is about but it totally works somehow. The fresh tone to her voice is something that hasn't been heard in a while and is a welcome change.

As if "Marcus Mumford joins a motorcycle gang" wasn't already a strong-enough concept for a music video, Mumford & Sons offer three extra plot lines in their newly-premiered music video for their latest single, "Whispers In The Dark," the third single off English folk rock band's latest critically-acclaimed sophomore album, "Babel," which won the Grammy for 'Album of the Year' last month and has sold two million copies to date.
This anthem call finds the frontman Marcus Mumford singing: "I'm a cad but I'm not a I'm not a fraud. I set out to serve the Lord." Speaking to the Big Issue, Mumford responded to the interviewer's question about the seeming religious undertones to the lyrics. "I don't even call myself a Christian," he added. "Spirituality is the word we engage with more. We're fans of faith, no religion. We're just writing songs that ask questions. Sometimes the best way to go about exploring a question, things we wouldn't necessarily talk about in conversation, is by writing a song."
When people think of Mumford & Sons as a throwback act, they mean that they use instrumentation and an aesthetic that dates back to the roots of American folk, country, and bluegrass. But when it comes to music videos, they are similarly old-school, in the sense that they really seem to be trying to make the sort of clips one of the biggest-selling rock bands in the country is supposed to make. It's the sort of classy, adventurous, vaguely artsy video that you used to expect from the likes of Coldplay, R.E.M., or whoever else was at the top of the rock heap at the moment, and Mumford & Sons are wearing that hat quite nicely.
Taking the de rigueur concept of the "live video," Mumford & Sons' members are preparing for a big gig in Jim Canty-directed clip, which is split into four small frames offers different stories of how four quadrants reache their destination and make their way to their sold-out arena shows, with Mumford riding a chopper to the show and going all "Rebel Without a Cause," Ben Lovett waking up in a parked car, Ted Dwane gazing wistfully at the sea before heading over to his show, and the eternally-rumpled Winston Marshall stepping out of a freshly-pressed suit and into a tattered costume. The four meet up at the end of the clip as the corners come together.

Denver-based folk rock trio The Lumineers released the sad-but-happy road trip themed clip for a slow-building track, "Stubborn Love," the second single from band's self-titled debut studio album. The former You Oughta Know act have flown the coop since being featured back in July, now headed for the 2013 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles this very weekend. But even after witnessing so much success, drummer Jeremia Fraites is still having a hard time believing they're up for 'Best New Artist' and 'Best Americana Album' at this Sunday night.
We couldn't be prouder and would like to thank the band for barreling their brand of folk "Americana" into the mainstream over the last year, and for making tearing up in the office completely acceptable. In "Stubborn Love," things literally go from dark and stormy to bright and sunny as The Lumineers showing us the world through the gaze of a heroine emotionally trying to digest the romance, loss, strife and joy surrounding her. It starts out sad and ends fittingly with smiles.  We don't need to clutch the tissue box for too long, because band's cello-soaked drums push their way to the surface as "Stubborn Love"'s blonde child star unleashes a sunny smile as the scenery shifts from gray to light through her window.
Directed by Isaac Ravishankara, the clip follows on the protagonists, the somber tale of an expressive little girl who's moving away with her mother after an apparent split. The folk rock trio themselves are noticeably absent for most of the video as their powerful vocals and instruments are enough to turn the literally dark and gloomy scenario into a bright and sunny outcome. Instead, as we watch the daughter wistfully staring out the car window, the band eventually makes a brief appearance, performing on a sidewalk as our protagonists drive by. Cathartic ooh-ooh-oohs, fogged-up car window doodles and loving glances between the mother and daughter ensue.
There's a wistful feeling that hangs with each strand of blonde hair we see blowing in the wind in the opening shot, and after nearly 30 seconds we're feeling pangs of nostalgia, totally overwhelmed by a happy sadness thinking back on car trips with loved ones and secrets shared with siblings. Director Ravishankara lends a warm, hazy glow to the visual, evoking more sentiment than any Instagram filter could ever give to your brunch photo. Through the eyes and car window of our young and silent narrator, we experience an assortment of life's big moments, including: love, breakups, breakdowns-both literal and metaphorical-as well as both loss and discovery.

Of Monsters and Men, an Icelandic alternative folk sensation, burst on the music scene this year with their first hit single "Little Talks," and the five-piece indie folk/indie pop band is back and have managed to release another epic, cinematic treat new video for their new single, "King and Lionheart," the title track for their upcoming album. Like all their songs, "King And Lionheart" has a folksy pop/rock feel, and the clip is a medieval, 'Middle Earth' fantasy.
Formed in 2010, Of Monsters and Men are the biggest thing to come of Iceland since Sigur Rós, and of course, their beautiful landscapes. Like many Icelanders, guitarist Ragnar Þórhallsson and vocalist-lyricist Nanna Hilmarsdottir are fascinated with the idea of storytelling, and many of their songs are fantastic fables of lions and other animals. "I like animals, and I think they're more fun than human beings," Þórhallsson told Spinner. "They're just very fun to write about. There's something simple about it. When we write the lyrics, we're often thinking about the human being as an animal. The raw animal instinct of a human being. It's like, how bad can people be?"
Directed by WeWereMonkeys (Mihai Wilson and Marcella Moser), whose last promo for "Little Talks," was named iTunes Alternative Single Of The Year last year, received over 50 million views on YouTube, so anticipation for a follow-up is erm, rather high, and it's no surprise that this long in gestation follow-up is just as epic. It has the feel of a Tolkien/Martin 'Middle Earth' fantasy, complete with a supernatural sprite that comes to the rescue, but there's enough clues to make you realize that it's a post-apocalyptic near future.
No fear, with all the charm and and wonder of their former promo, WeWereMonkeys deliver on all fronts. Of Monsters and Men showcase their splendid feel-good single "King And Lionheart" behind a dark animated visual. Focused on the endeavor of two intrigued little children, a brother and sister are desperate to reunite in the wake of a world taken over by an evil force, the video follows a sea of animated creatures and angry men as they chase down the all but innocent kids through a seemingly permanent coat of darkness. Guided by a light though, the children are able to find refuge in a large 'spoiler alert' castles that doubles as a spaceship.

Ed Sheeran tackles the concept of giving love versus receiving love in an angelic new video for his melodic folk-pop tune, "Give Me Love," the sixth and final single from his hugely successful debut studio album "+," which hits the airwaves last September, and since then, the 21-year-old British star has swiftly built up a devoted international fanbase and collaborated with two of the biggest acts in the pop world, One Direction and Taylor Swift. And now he giving fans another hopelessly romantic song.
Sheeran's musical career was not taking off how he would have liked. That is, until Sheeran met singer-actor Jamie Foxx who took an interest in the songwriter as well as his music. He cares about in his own life, performing with a "soft toned, flexible voice" with a hip-hop theme and laying down of "+:" "I started recording in January in a friend's garden shed in Suffolk. I wanted to keep that organic lo-fi feel. I've got the rest of my life to make an album in a swish studio. This time round I wanted to stay true to the sound that's got me this far."
"Give Me Love," came through late in the recording process, penned by Sheeran, along with songwriters Jake Gosling and Chris Leonard, is tells a story not of falling in love, but of love lost and a message of hope that we can find love in others despite our shortcomings. Sheeran explained: "That's an important song for me. It's got a more fleshed-out sound, which I think is where I'm headed in future." He added: "It's about a relationship that fell apart and you're asking for it to be put back together. Most people get to a point where they drink themselves into a dark corner in that situation. It's that point of view."
Directed by Emil Nava, the brilliantly powerful storyline based visual revolves around a beautiful girl who becomes cupid. Follows the life of a modern day, the clip features a lonely Sheeran drinking coffee in a diner while an angel wanders through the city at night. Australian actress Isabel Lucas plays the Cupid-like angel and went around making people fall in love by shooting them with an arrow. In spite of her gift for bringing others together, her loneliness brings her to a tragic end.

Mumford & Sons have dropped a stunning and cinematic clip supporting their latest U.K. single, "Lover of the Light," the second single from the British indie folk band' latest extremely successful sophomore studio album, "Babel." Mumford & Sons don't do anything halfway, and their new video for "Lover Of The Light," is proof that the four-piece English folk collective puts just as much work into the concept of their videos as they do their epic brand of folk music.
All the classic Mumfy essentials of the song are there: marvelous, sweeping crescendos; lead singer Marcus Mumford's grainy, powerful vocals; great, swelling, uplifting emotional buildup. No exception for "Lover of the Light." This boisterous bluegrass banger has been a regular in Mumford & Sons' live sets since early 2010. Keyboard player Ben Lovett told NME: "With 'Lover of the Light,' people would say to us, 'Oh, I can't wait to hear that chorus on record.' But what they really meant by that is they can't wait to hear what they've already heard." It's a gorgeous piece with lovely cinematography set to one of Babel's best tracks.
One can be blind and still be a "Lover of the Light," that seems to be the moral to the story in the Mumford & Sons' new video, which features actor Idris Elba, who stars and makes his directorial debut as a blind man who suffering at his unhealthy disconnection from nature and finds true happiness in the light. This is a visually impressive video that carefully mirrors the timbre of the swelling and dynamic thoughtful uptempo tune.
Filmed in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the video follows a blind Elba seeking personal fulfillment in the great outdoors as he goes through his morning routine and explores the near by wilderness, his confidence surges until he arrives at a cliff side and yells his heart out to the ocean. He is all boundless joy and energy, rapturous. In a world of darkness, he loves the light. A somber and reflective Mumford strains, "Watch me stumble over and over." It has faithful Mumford fans wiping their eyes and scratching their heads.

One Direction went on a different direction from their usually upbeat and settled down for a studio session and shows off their more soulful side in a brand-new minimalist video for their super-sappy ballad, "Little Things," the second cut to be lifted from the British-Irish boy band's upcoming sophomore studio album, "Take Me Home," which will hit the shelves in the UK on November 12 and a day later in the US.
The slow and sentimental ballad, "Little Things" is a song about what a guy loves everything about his girl even the silliest things. This acoustic ballad is one of two songs penned by Ed Sheeran when he was in his teens and they were inspired by a relationship he was in at the time. He revealed to MTV News: "The great thing about it is I wrote that song with a girl called Fiona Bevan when I was 17 and we lost the song. I've kept in touch with Fiona, we've done gigs and stuff and about two months ago she sent me the tune."
One Direction have a few "Little Things" that they want to share in their brand-new video, and most of those little things add up to the fact that they think you are perfect, no matter how you perceive yourself. It's a sweet and subdued, dramatic black-and-white stripped down clip that suits the acoustic ballad perfectly, with nothing flashy - just the fivesome singing, playing instruments, and jamming out together in the studio recording the swoon-worthy track, while each moment is captured by a Polaroid picture.
Taking a stylistic break from their earlier videos, "Little Things" has a far more minimalist vibe and features the boys in the recording studio, gazing into the camera, adjusting sound levels, singing gently into the microphone, and pensively strumming their guitars. The quiet tone of the clip complements the ballad's sentimental lyrics. Needless to say, it's a far cry from the inflatable bananas and Monkees antics of their "Live While We're Young" video, but shows the low key side of all the One Direction group members.

English singer/songwriter Gabrielle Aplin has unveiled an official music video for her debut major label single "Please Don't Say You Love Me." The track is another wonderful tune from the Bath folk-pop songstress, and is due for release on November 18th, and serves as the lead single from her upcoming as-yet-untitled album, set for release in early 2013. The talented teenager's dreams are slowly but surely becoming reality.
Aplin has come a long way from the days when she first made a stir online and covered a song by the American Pop-punk band Paramore, called "My Heart" on YouTube in 2008. With beautiful vocals and a raw talent for song, she has since released three successful EPs displaying her remarkable multi instrumental skills, and though still only 19, she's self taught, insanely talented and her music feels like it's about something far more personal, far more human, more close to heart.
"Please Don’t Say You Love Me," is a sweet and simple love song with a guitar-driven folk/pop sound. Aplin's soft vocals reflect the vulnerability of the lyrics, and after just one listen, the chorus of this track will stay with you. She's outdone herself with this acoustic-driven ballad, drawing on her incredible capacity for writing emotional and relatable songs, as well as that enchanting voice of hers. If you like something a bit more mellow, you should definitely check out the floaty, folky Aplin, but only if your prepared to sway about in a dreamy haze for the next half an hour.
The singer breaks down in her car en route to a party in the clip, which accompanies a track narrating a haunting yet beautifully frank take on the uncertainties of life and the dreaded heartbreak that comes with it, featuring Brit actors Ophelia Lovibond and Iain De Caestecker as a young couple in love struggling through problems in their relationship. The clip showing us that this girl refuses to live in the shadow of the likes of Laura Marling and Lucy Rose. Naturally, we love it!