Photo courtesy of Juan Kattan, Flickr
The band out of Denver, Colo., The Lumineers, came out with their third album ‘’III,” on Sept. 13, 2019. Wesley Shultz, Jeremiah Fraites, and Lauren Jacobson wrote this album. All of them are big parts of the Lumineers production team. Friates is a musician who can play a couple of instruments and Jacobson plays the violin and performs with the group.
The Lumineers have really have hit their strides with this album. The first one is “Gloria,” then the bonus track, “Old Lady,” and the third being “Leader of the Landslide" exceeded my expectations. Listening to the whole album, plus all the bonus tracks, the songs are calming and similar to some of their previous songs on this album.
Each of their songs tells a story of addiction and how addiction can affect the people close to you. For example, in the song “Gloria,” if you read the lyrics, which discuss addiction as follows, “Gloria, I smell it on your breath / Get me back my own two feet / Gloria you made us sit and watch.”
From the storytelling, you can tell that Gloria is drunk and is unable to get back up on her feet, making her own family watch her battle with addiction. One of the band members, Shultz, says the song Gloria represents a conversation between the mother, who is the addict, and her daughter.
The founding members of the Lumineers, Shultz and Friates, both have experience with a loved one battling an addiction. Friates’ younger brother, Josh Friates, fought an addiction. Josh Friates was also close friends with band member Shultz, who witnessed this battle firsthand. This experience became the reason for all the songs on this album.
The album contains songs that have a deep meaning to each track as compared to any other songs they have written or have performed. The songs on this album can make a person question their own state of health.
The Lumineers also released accompanying music videos for the songs on "III." The lyrics and series of music videos, divided in parts one through ten, make one try to understand the right and wrongs of those battling addiction, along with those who have seen it firsthand. The lyrics and the actors in the videos pull the audience in all different directions, trying to make sense of what the parent or child had going through their mind.
The World Tour of their new album “III,” will start at the Gulf Shores in Alabama at the Hangout Music Festival. If you are excited to watch the Lumineers perform their third album, you can go on Feb. 26, 2020 at the Key Bank Center, in Buffalo, New York. If you want to wait and watch it a little bit closer to Ramapo College, you can go to Camden, New Jersey at the BB&T Pavilion on June 5, 2020, or go to Sarasota Springs, at the Sarasota Performing Arts Center, on June 6, 2020.
hedelkop@ramapo.edu
