The forensic archaeologist at the Crotchety Music Institute was asked to find songs on the theme of Position. The search began with the keywords ‘position’, ‘where’ and ‘place’, which turned up a few mostly unremarkable pop and folk songs. Next, he tried ‘front’, ‘back’, ‘above’, ‘below’, ‘left’ and ‘right’. These brought to light one or two newer and marginally more interesting artefacts. And, finally, he fed some fielding positions into the search engine: bowler, wicketkeeper, mid-on, etc. These mostly failed to uncover anything of note, but there was this song by Mumford & Sons.

Now, Mumford & Sons has accrued considerable critical acclaim, but it’s a band that has not yet been explored here. Our excavations might have been in an adjacent musicological field, but our spades and trowels never unearthed their songs. Until now.

We seized this opportunity to extend the dig, and the first patch to investigate was Delta, the 2018 album where Slip Away was discovered. A further 13 songs were recovered from the Delta site, all quite similar and none outshining the first entry in the site catalogue. We had expected more variety. We had expected more valuable prizes. But the songs were unexceptional, and the lyrics conveyed little. We were disappointed.

Starting a second trench, we cut into the band’s first album, Sigh No More. We’d hardly got started when an official told us there was an irregularity with our permit, and we had to stop. Nothing of interest had poked out from the new trench, but it was far too early to write off a record that had won the Top Rock Album award in the 2011 Billboard Music Awards.

The Mumford & Sons extension remains on hold for now. Until we are able to resume operations, here are the highlights from the wider Position project:

• Who Knows Where the Time Goes, Fairport Convention
• Miles Behind, Chris Opperman
• Long On, Pip Pyle
• Where the Wild Roses Grow, Nick Cave and Kylie Minogue

(All links are to Spotify.)