"There is not, as far as I'm aware, a phrase for that particular feeling of disquiet when something that should, by all obvious descriptors, be right up your alley instead leaves you by the side of the road. When Mumford & Sons made their first splash back in the late aughts, I felt squirmy without knowing exactly why."
"For some reason - I think, now, having to do with a marketable sheen masking a certain inauthenticity - the Mumford boys never did it for me, despite my fondness for their broader genre. Over the last few years, I've been experiencing Mumford Syndrome again - this time with the Bengsons."
"In 2017, I was moved by Hundred Days, the story of their meeting and marriage, but I also remember feeling prickles of doubt. I couldn't quite work out how or even whether to pursue those prickles, so I stuck with what seemed admirable about the show."
The author describes experiencing 'Mumford Syndrome'—a discomfort with work that should appeal but doesn't—first with Mumford & Sons and now with the Bengsons, a folk-influenced musical couple. Despite admiring their lush songwriting, ecstatic performances, and technical abilities, the author felt growing doubt about their work over nearly a decade. Initial reservations about their 2017 show 'Hundred Days' persisted but remained unexamined. By 2024, the author could better articulate these concerns about 'The Keep Going Songs,' sensing a marketable sheen masking inauthenticity. The Bengsons' Broadway appearance performing Stephin Merritt's songs reinforced this tension between sharp material and simplistic presentation. The author acknowledges the difficulty of parsing complex artistic responses, even professionally.
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