I was a passive fan of The Lumineers' self-titled album when it released in 2012. The music was the sort of stuff I typically enjoy -- light folk rock with heavy focus on acoustic guitar and drum beats, with songwriting that trumps most of the pop artists at the top of the charts.
Still, the indie folk group escaped my complete attention.
I felt like while some of the album's stronger tracks, such as "Ho Hey" and "Stubborn Love" were fantastic, the record felt like it was missing something. The record was a financial success, but a lot of the tracks felt like they didn't connect well to each other -- all good, but lacking a substantive theme. Most of the people I knew who enjoyed "The Lumineers" only listened to the hits from the album, which I find telling of the record's success as a complete package.
The Lumineer's latest entry corrects some of the problems from their debut.
"Cleopatra," earning its title from the third track on the list, is a fuller, more mature album. Wesley Schultz's memorable vocals are back, with writing that's well-constructed. Lyrically, it's more of the same. Anyone who wants to criticize the Lumineers for writing too many songs about heartbreak is free to do so, but this album didn't feel like an attempt to reinvent the lyrical style of the group.
Instead, "Cleopatra" improves as a union of theme and sound. I would encourage listening to this record from beginning to end, non-stop, without shuffling. Every track is a puzzle piece that fits into the bigger picture of this record in terms of sound. Thematically, "Cleopatra" seems like it built on the successes of "The Lumineers." "Stubborn Love" could be thrown into this album, and it would mostly fit alongside the other tracks with a few tweaks on the production side.
The record's opening track, "Sleep on the Floor," is a perfect signal of the Lumineers' intent in this release. The track held resemblance to the band's debut to the point that I understood that I was definitely listening to the Lumineers, but I felt a measure of depth at around the two-minute mark with sounds unheard from the previous album that I felt, both lyrically and musically, was matured.
One of the stronger tracks, "Ophelia," was released ahead of the album as a single. It's a poppy earworm of a song that's sure to climb the charts as a staple for this summer. The lyrics are easy to pick up, and the piano in the background sets an upbeat tone which mimics the whimsical variance in Schultz's voice.
The shining accomplishment of "Cleopatra," however, is the song for which the record takes its name. "Cleopatra" is a song which pays its dues to the successes of the Lumineers' debut album, but still manages to stand on its own in the way it sounds.
Lyrically, I'd rather let people enjoy peeling back the layers of this record on their own, so I'll leave at this: I'm impressed. Schultz manages to refer to Greco-Roman history, faith, and acting, relating them all to the message of the track, in a three-and-a-half-minute song that demands to be played back repeatedly.
My one concern is that the Lumineers definitely made a risk in not risking much at all. This album feels like an improvement on the last one, but doesn't really test the group's limits. The Lumineers succeeded in making a higher quality sophomore record, but will definitely need to experiment more moving forward.
Overall, I've highly enjoyed picking this album apart and have made it the official score for my finals week. I would recommend this to anyone fond of the Lumineers or similar folk and indie folk rock bands.
