The Lumineers - Cleopatra

The Lumineers
Cleopatra
2016
Spotify

2012 feels like a long time ago at this point, and the music of that time even a more distant memory. However 2012 was the time where you could not turn on your radio without hearing "Ho Hey" off the Lumineers self-titled debut. Folk-pop was at it's peak popularity and The Lumineers rode that wave hard. However after touring the album for almost four years, and playing the same songs night after night it certainly was time for something new. That new is Cleopatra. The path to this album was never going to be an easy one. You can't have a hit as massive as "Ho Hey" and not go into another record without a little trepidation that the one song may have been it. The temptation to just try and make a whole record of toe tapping and clapping songs like "Ho Hey" to fill up the space would be easy, but the Lumineers seems to have taken a different approach. These tracks have a slow burn that takes you through the entire record. There are very few valleys, but that also means there are far less peaks. Minus the first three tracks the energy level is quite low and the usually huge percussion takes a backseat. On a song like "Angela" the track is almost over before you get any kind of percussion, mostly letting the acoustic guitar keep time. "Angela" happens to be one of the better songs made using this style and really allows the song to go somewhere, but on the others it always feels like that little something is lacking. Even "Angela" ends on a whimper rather than a scream.

The album is quite short at only 34 minutes, but it never really feels like it is dragging at any point even though the last three songs do tend to hang around a bit to long. What you really get from this record however is these guys really do know how to write a song. The words, the music everything feels totally organic and real, even though it may be boring or feel dated. The bones are all there but perhaps a better producer could push the band a bit to expand their horizons just that bit more which would take this to the next level. "Long Way from Home" has this emotional hook that is just inescapable despite that fact that it is just voice and an electric guitar. There certainly is not a song with the mainstream potential as "Ho Hey" but there also is not a clear backslide either. Cleopatra shows that though they may be in a genre that has seen it's time come and go they can still make songs with a great deal of feeling. The final track "Patience" has no vocals, just a piano guiding you into a soft landing from the album, which feels quite nice but also leaves you with the feeling like you really don't need to go back to this record again and again. For a Sophomore release this album shows that The Lumineers have a great deal of promise and are more than just "Ho Hey", but I doubt this one is going to go down as one of their best.

6.9 out of 10