Cannibal (Marcus Mumford song)

Per Consequence's Abby Jones, the song is "a somber, rootsy tune that feels a bit like a pared-down version of Mumford & Sons' arena-sized folk rock—that is, until around the three-minute mark, when the song transforms from an acoustic ballad into a rousing barnburner", and has lyrics which "sees Mumford break away from a parasitic relationship" with lyrics including "You took the first slice of me and you ate it raw/ Ripped at it with your teeth and your lips like a cannibal/ You fucking animal" in the first verse and "Help me know how to begin again" in the song's climax.[1] DIY's Emma Swann notes "Cannibal" as one of the songs on the album where Mumford "strips it right back", bringing out "a warm quality to his songwriting that seeps through."[2] The Independent's Helen Brown notes a moment where the song's "suppressed, acoustic intensity ... explodes into a synth-backed crescendo", with "Mumford's big yearning yawp of a voice ... buried behind the instrumentation", "as though he's handing over the experience." Brown calls it an effective technique and "evocative of the hushed circle of chairs at a support group."[3] NME's Elizabeth Aubrey emphasises the song's "downcast fingerpicking", calling it "sonically sparse".[4]

In an interview with GQ's Zach Baron, Mumford confessed the lyrics were about his experience being sexually abused as a child, with the song containing lyrics explicitly about the matter such as the lines "I can still taste you and I hate it" and "That wasn't a choice in the mind of a child and you knew it".[5][6][7]

A music video for the song was released 18 July 2022, helmed by first time music video director Steven Spielberg. The video was shot in a high school gym in New York and filmed in one take entirely on Spielberg's phone. The crew also included Spielberg's wife Kate Capshaw as producer, art director and dolly grip; Mumford's wife Carey Mulligan as costumer and sound engineer; and Kristie Macosko Krieger as co-producer and behind-the-scenes videographer.[8][9][10]

• Marcus Mumford – vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, songwriting
• Blake Mills – producer, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, percussion, organ, synthesiser, mixing engineer
• Jim Keltner – cymbals
• Joseph Lorge – recording and mixing engineer
• Patricia Sullivan – mastering engineer
• Danielle Goldsmith, Gabe Lowry, Logan Taylor, and Scott Moore – assistant recording engineers