“Throw your hands up in the air and scream whooooa whoa whoa!”

There. Modern chorus writing for dummies. Turn the dial to any station programmed into your car stereo or download nearly any of the top ten singles on iTunes and you’ll hear something along those lines. While music of that nature is not (necessarily) bad, there is something to be said for successfully breaking the mold in today’s musical landscape.

It has been three long years since English folk rock group Mumford & Sons presented listeners with Sigh No More, a debut album composed of twelve exquisite songs brimming with originality. In fact, the album’s titular track makes multiple references to Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, and fan-favorite “The Cave” is a spinoff of Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave.” Step it up, Ke$ha.

While touring globally on behalf of Sigh No More, the group began writing and recording songs for Babel, their sophomore offering, testing them out on lucky audiences along the way. Because of this, a handful of the album’s 15 tracks have been floating around online for some time.

Fear not, however. Despite what some elementary listeners might tell you, Babel is not Sigh No More, Part 2. In fact, the group’s dramatic evolution and road-worn wisdom shines through with every gravelly harmony, and Babel’s blemishes — the unintentional buzzing of a banjo chord, the lack of pop-star polish in lead-vocalist Marcus Mumford’s voice — are its true strengths. Mumford moans and wails with such conviction and yearning you can’t help but yearn right along with him.

And don’t do yourself the disservice of downloading only “I Will Wait,” the album’s chart-topper (for good reason). Babel’s remaining 14 songs are equally indelible. “Ghosts That We Knew” showcases Mumford’s vocal skills independent of his bandmates, and “Below My Feet” is a desperate plea to a higher power for guidance. “Lover of the Light” is the only low-point, and aside from its ho-hum strum patterns, it isn’t even a low-point.

If Mumford & Sons possesses one defining quality, it is a remarkable ability to exude honesty without whining.

A word of advice: Don’t stick any of Babel’s poetry on a “Party Time” playlist. Don’t force it to occupy the same car ride as your workout mix. It will not fit. Allow Babel to stand alone as the masterpiece that it is, and allow yourself to be swept away in its powerful emotional currents.

UPDATE: Babel sold approximately 600,000 copies in its first week, more than the next seven albums on the Billboard 200 combined. That marks the biggest first-week debut since Drake’s Take Care sold 631,000 in 2011, as well as the biggest first-week debut for a rock album since AC/DC’s 2008 album Black Ice put up 784,000 copies. (Numbers courtesy of Yahoo! Chart Watch)

RATING: 5/5 stars

Babel is currently available for download on iTunes. iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users can also download this free app and stream the entire Mumford & Sons performance from the 2012 iTunes Festival at The Roundhouse in London.