Mumford and Sons, still riding on the success of their 2010 debut Sigh No More, released their second full length album. Babel (pronounced by the band as babe-el) is on its way to going gold this week, and will almost certainly hit the #1 spot on charts.

The band is best known for their use of banjos, simple drumbeat and quiet-loud approach to songwriting. On Sigh No More, Mumford and Sons combined all of this with ridiculously catchy hooks to make an album that astounded listeners. Songs such as “Little Lion Man” or “The Cave” featured unique and creative melodies that made each song distinct.

Unfortunately, on Babel, Mumford and Sons failed to maintain the same standard. Tracks such as “Holland Road”, use the banjo as background instrument, as when Marcus Mumford belts the lines: “And I will not tell/ The thoughts of hell/They carried me home/From the Holland Road”. Here the banjo plays a repetitive melody, that sounds generic and uninteresting. There are many more examples of this, on tracks such as “Ghosts that We Knew” and “Whispers in the Dark”.

There are a few exceptions, such as “Lover of the Light” and “Broken Crown”. However, what makes the album interesting is not the instrumentation, but the vocals. In this respect the band succeeds. Even on songs with boring melodies, the lyrical ability and creativity of singer Marcus Mumford makes up for it. His voice provides an interesting and powerful focus for songs like “Holland Road” and “I Will Wait”.

Overall, Babel is worth listening to. It’s an enjoyable and catchy sophomore effort, which explains its U.S. sales of 600,000 copies in its first week of release, and  eight million Spotify streams . It’s certainly a relief to see a band that actually uses instruments and takes their their craft seriously. However, Babel is not without its flaws, and although the album is above average, it is nowhere close to the level of Sigh No More.