Folk-pop duo Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites, founding members of The Lumineers, celebrated 20 years of songwriting together with the release of “Automatic” on Friday. The album delivers a blend of the band’s stomp-and-holler classics and heartbreaking ballads that embody The Lumineers’ beloved folk rhythms and lyrics while exploring modern themes.
“Automatic” marks The Lumineers’ fifth album, following the release of “BRIGHTSIDE” in 2022. Although “Automatic” doesn’t promise any songs that will soar to the top of the charts like the band’s smash hits “Ho Hey” and “Ophelia,” it does promise 11 tracks that explore coping with mental health (“Ativan”), longing for love (“You’re All I Got”) and the realities of fame (“Plasticine”), among other ideas.
The album opens with “Same Old Song,” bringing an upbeat, stomp-and-holler tune to introduce listeners to “Automatic’s” sound. The song’s steady drum draws listeners in but is quickly followed by the melodic piano of “Asshole,” in which the simplistic chorus (“First we ever met / You thought I was an asshole / Probably correct / But I can see your shadow”) is amplified by the increased yearning in Schultz’s vocals built throughout the verses.
“Strings” offers the first of “Automatic’s” two instrumentals, a mellow string accompaniment that fades out before jumping into the album’s title track. “Automatic (title track)” continues “Asshole’s” vulnerability and offers the rawest track both vocally and lyrically. The first chorus’s gentle piano accompaniment shifts to sounds resemblant of “Strings” by the end. Similarly, Schultz’s voice shifts from nearly breaking during the first chorus to rich and powerful by the last.
“You’re All I Got” ushers in the last stretch of “Automatic’s” aching. It delivers sounds most emblematic of The Lumineers’ previous works, with verses similar to “BIG SHOT” on “BRIGHTSIDE.”
Also containing hints of “BRIGHTSIDE” is “Plasticine,” marking the transition back to a more upbeat, folk sound. Both of the Lumineers’ founders became fathers in 2018, likely leading to “Plasticine’s” haunting commentary on how the highs of fame can simultaneously be the lows — how the entrance to the “party” has led Fraites and Schultz to evaluate whether fame and success are still what they desire.
“Ativan” cleverly tackles dependence on anti-anxiety medications with a sweet-sounding combination of verses and choruses leading to a falsely uplifting outro: “I’ll be on the bullet train to Neverland / Your enemy with benefits, we’rе free / I’ll provide the poison and the mеdicine / The only thing you’re ever gonna need.” The song touches on “the increasingly blurry line between what’s real and what’s not,” as the band wrote in their album announcement caption.
As the album dives into its final third, Schultz’s raw vocals return. “Keys on the Table” makes direct reference to “You’re All I Got” and provides the album’s second love-seeking and insecure ballad. Its following track, “Better Day,” offers a simplistic look — both lyrically and instrumentally — at the state of today’s world: “Teenagers lead the crusades / Senators, insider trades / Blue lights keep red eyes awake / Teenagers lead the parade.”
The Lumineers introduce their second instrumental of the album, “Sunflowers,” as Track 10 with initial piano melodies shockingly similar to that of “Patience” on “Cleopatra” before transitioning into a more soulful performance around the song’s halfway mark.
“Automatic” closes with “So Long,” lyrically rich and unabashedly folk. But while aspects of “Automatic” draw on these stylistic and lyrical elements of the band’s past success, it is by no means dull or uninspired. Rather, it delivers maturity, self-awareness and modern narratives untapped in the band’s earlier albums.
Email: laurahorne2027@u.northwestern.edu
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