‘III’, a new album by The Lumineers

Today’s the day, folks! I’m here to talk about the third studio album by The Lumineers and my thoughts on it, finally!

The Lumineers are an American rock band that formed in Denver, Colorado, way back in 2005. You might be familiar with them on account of their hit single “Ho Hey”, arguably their most successful song to date, amasing over 200 million views on YouTube and nearly 500 million plays on Spotify, but let me tell you, there’s way more to them than that! I may be a little biased though, considering I have been a die hard fan of them since 2014… but the point stands.

To be honest, their prior record “Cleopatra” set the bar super high for me, so this new one was received with a lot of expectations, and it’s fair to say there’s been some positives and some negatives.

For starters, I feel the compelling need to criticize whoever had the ‘brilliant’ idea to release six songs as singles, six?! out of 13 tracks? It really doesn’t feel like Christmas morning anymore, when you’ve already listened to half the album!

Putting that aside, I must commend everyone who took part on creating “III”, whoever had any kind of input in making it happen. It is impossible not to notice the amount of work behind this creation. The amount of careful thought that goes into every little detail, in bringing a story to life, not only through the music and the words, but with beautifully crafted music videos. So stunning in fact that they ended up being turned into a short film that premiered at Toronto International Film Festival! Amazing and well deserved!

However, in my opinion, it feels as if there hasn’t been much evolvement from past works when it comes to the sound. Many of the tracks feel like “Ah, I’ve heard this same song so many times before”. 

Another thing to take into consideration is Neyla Pekarek’s departure from the band after the end of the “Cleopatra” era. I’ve seen this affect the sound, and it shifting from being guitar-driven accompanied by cello, towards having a piano as the center of attention, which ugh, I’m just not the biggest fan of.

The album “III”’s story progresses through three generations, as it describes a family and how their lives are affected by addiction. There are three chapters, Gloria Sparks, Junior Sparks and Jimmy Sparks. My favourite songs right now are probably “Life In The City”and“Gloria”. 

Overall, I must admit I’m slightly disappointed with the album, but it’s still enjoyable and well, I will always support them because they’re my favourite band ❤ 

:-)