Only a fool would mess with the formula that led to Mumford & Sons' junior-Coldplay coronation last year - and all signs indicate that the British alt-folk sensations have no intention of doing so on the follow-up to their sleeper smash debut LP, Sigh No More. Take their latest appetizer, a dolorous ballad that they previewed at a recent radio performance. "Ghosts That We Knew" (or maybe just "Ghosts") opens with soft acoustic fingerpicking and a typically careworn vocal from frontman Marcus Mumford: "You saw my pain washed out in the rain," he murmurs, bruised but still wanting to believe. His bandmates join in with ragged harmonies on the chorus - "I will hope as long as you like," Mumford pleads, "just promise me we'll be all right" - and their twangy contributions on banjo and accordion further the Appalachia-via-London catharsis. When Mumford's voice strains and sputters in the final refrain, it only makes him sound more passionate.

Listen to "Ghosts That We Knew":  

“Is It True”

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."