“I Will Wait” by Mumford & Sons

"I Will Wait" was the first taste of Babel, Mumford & Sons' second album, landing in America on 7 August 2012, and it's the British band doubling down on everything that worked the first time: a galloping acoustic stomp, harmonies stacked to the rafters and a chorus that keeps climbing until the whole thing lifts off. Markus Dravs produced it, Ruadhri Cushnan mixed it, and the writing is split four ways between Marcus Mumford, Ben Lovett, Winston Marshall and Ted Dwane.

It sold 153,000 copies in its first US week and climbed to number 12 there, the highest any of their songs had reached in America, and it went top ten in Britain, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand. Triple J listeners voted it fifth in their Hottest 100 of 2012. It later turned up in Guitar Hero Live, and Diego Luna sang it in The Book of Life.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.