Babel (song)

"Babel" is a song performed by British folk rock band Mumford & Sons, released as the fourth single from their second studio album Babel (2012). It was released on 9 July 2013 as a digital download. The song was written by Mumford & Sons and produced by Markus Dravs.

About the name
"Babel" is the name of both the song and the album on which their song appeared. The title is a reference to the story known as the Tower of Babel from Genesis 11:1–9 in the Bible. The song features numerous other biblical references too, which is common for music by Mumford & Sons.

Still, they maintain that their message is not intended to be explicitly religious in nature. Rather, their bassist, Ted Dwane, noted in a Rolling Stone interview that the song is more generally about human striving and discontentment: "As humans, we’re such a discontented species. We’re always trying to further ourselves, and you get all the way to the moon and then it’s just discontent. You want to go to Mars."

Music video
A music video to accompany the release of "Babel" was first released onto YouTube on 8 July 2013 at a total length of four minutes and five seconds. The video shows the band performing the song in the former 16th Street station in Oakland, California.