MUMFORD & SONS

Delta ISLAND / UNIVERSAL

If nothing else, Delta teaches us that it’s not always worth holding out hope for redemption. Mumford’s fourth effort is another muddled slog through a spate of sounds that don’t really suit them; it’s the faux-folkers’ longest album (at a punishing 61 minutes), yet it offers their least innovation, watering down the quirky banjo-pop charisma they cut their teeth on with uninspired rhythm lines, basic orchestral structures (we get it, guys, you can afford session musicians) and an overbearing slick of synths that add genuinely nothing to songs that feel more like shower-borne ideas than fully fleshed-out tracks. It’s less soulless than 2015’s WilderMind, but that’s not saying much.