NEW RELEASE: Brightside - The Lumineers

 I have personally been fairly interested in the Lumineers since their beginning. Cleopatra is still one of their best bodies of work, with III being a bit on the duller side. Nevertheless, I admit the singles from this short album had not yet excited me. I still take a listen with optimism though.

The album begins with "Brightside", which has some production issues but also the vocalist does not sound like he really can sing the notes he is trying to reach. A strained song.

"A.M. Radio" is a similar lackluster song with production issues. I usually expect better from them.

"Where We Are" is the first appealing song. It sounds a bit more like their old work. 

"Birthday" sounds more like a lazy drunken song I would've heard from Everyday Life...the forgotten Coldplay album. I am honestly losing my optimism for this body of work.

"Big Shot" is instrumentally better, but I am beginning to think this album was relatively...uninspired. As if they were out of ideas. They came into this without a story or anything to say. 

"Never Really Mine" experiences more of the production and vocal strain issues of track one. There's nothing wrong with staying in a lane which is most comfortable for what you do.

"Rollercoaster" as a word alone would be a good description for my current pain at finally feeling disappointed with something the Lumineers released. Lazy lyricism and lazier production. 

"Remington" is a short one minute song but it is actually one of the better ones. I wish they had taken the time to make it a real track and not something of a strange interlude.

And we hit a maximum laziness when your final track is a REPRISE...of the tracks on your ONLY NINE SONG ALBUM that is ONLY 30 MINUTES. You have disgraced me Wesley. Do not release anything else until you exit this slump.

Lyrics: 2/10 - They are lacking in the usual sweet or storytelling aspects of their previous work.

Music: 1/10 - The production is a hot mess. I don't know if they didn't care or they were trying to go for "I am acoustic and I don't care."

Overall: 2/10 - One song worth returning to. Skip this one.