Image courtesy of Unsplash.
Acclaimed folk rock band The Lumineers released their fourth studio album on Jan. 14th, 2022 to fairly positive reviews. While some critics praised BRIGHTSIDE for its stripped back, authentic sound and bright, atmospheric energy, many fans (including myself) were left unsatisfied with the caliber of the music due to the previous three powerhouses of releases from the band. Due to the album’s uniformity of the sound and brief length, BRIGHTSIDE is, regrettably, forgettable.
Perhaps releasing three incredible albums set the lukewarm BRIGHTSIDE up for failure. This album falls short of what fans know the band capable of producing based on their immersive and lauded previous discography. Had the album been created by a new artist bursting onto the indie folk or folk rock scene, BRIGHTSIDE may have been justifiably appreciated for its strengths and its weaknesses may have felt less obvious.
Regardless of the album’s potency as a cohesive whole, The Lumineers do not completely miss the mark; the three singles released, “BRIGHTSIDE,” “BIG SHOT,” and “A.M. RADIO,” are some of their best music to date. The eponymous track “BRIGHTSIDE” contains some of the most noteworthy lyrics on the album recalling the evocative lyricism from past albums. The narrator sings of being his love’s “brightside, baby, tonight” as he recalls specific vignettes and elucidates his undying positivity even in difficult times. The second verse is particularly compelling for the lyrics: “I was stranded in the bed / You were listening to The Dark Side of the Moon”; the clever reference to Pink Floyd’s album playing off the album, reminding listeners that The Lumineers are capable of creative lyricism. These lines along with the pre-chorus display the band’s distinctive ability to use simplistic language to evoke resonate feelings within their listeners; “But the light in your eyes / Alone on a feeling,” sings lead singer Wesley Schultz in pre-chorus number two, in classic Lumineers fashion.
The album’s second single, “BIG SHOT”, follows in the footsteps of their breakthrough favorite “Ho Hey”; sonically intriguing, catchy, lyrically accessible, “BIG SHOT” is liable to be the tune stuck in your head all day as your brain sings the simple hook over and over: “And you wanna be a big shot / You wanna be the big man / You wanna hold a big gun / You better have a quick hand.” Though the lyrics are not revolutionary, musically “BIG SHOT” serves as the perfect song for your road-trip playlist.
“A.M. RADIO” is perhaps the best of the bunch — the third and final single from the album has the intensity and rawness of emotion which The Lumineers are known for, and which is nearly absent from the rest of the album. Alongside “BRIGHTSIDE”, “A.M. RADIO”’s lyrics prove superior from the rest, as the words swell and surge in a cathartic wave of words. A savior sings “from the fire escape on the second floor”, a lover promises the other that they will “make it to the catacombs”, and the singer repeats “Long as you run / I couldn’t give you up / Forever run / I couldn’t give you up”. “A.M. RADIO”’s lyrics avoid cliches while remaining simple enough to encourage listeners to relate on an emotional level, which is the band’s cornerstone.
One of the album’s biggest failures, with a few exceptions including “A.M. RADIO”, is its cliches. The appropriately titled “BIRTHDAY” provides the chorus: “It’s alright, / it’s alright, it’s alright / It’s your birthday, dear / It’s alright, it’s alright, and we will carry on / And you know, and you know, and you know / It’s your birthday” which is so lacking in creativity and variation that it borderlines on childish. “ROLLERCOASTER”’s lengthy intro of a piano melody provides promise for a song devoid of cliches, however once the lyrics begin this wish loses all steam; “Sittin’ on a rollercoaster, holdin’ on for dear life” repeats twice, followed by the lackluster chorus: “I know what is what / I who you are / I know what is already gone.” Track 6, “NEVER REALLY MINE,” is encapsulated within the title itself — thematically the song holds barely any substance and the track brings nothing novel to the table. “REMINGTON” might have been on par with the album’s three singles were it not for the fact that the track does not even reach the two minute mark. The song intrigues both conceptually and thematically, but by the time the listener is invested with where the song is headed, it is already over. “WHERE WE ARE” would be stronger without the band’s past discography holding it back, as the upbeat track has potential in its chorus which repeats the title of the song, and bridge (“I know who you wanted me to be / Always holding up your tragedy”), but ultimately feels like it retreads old beats from The Lumineers’s past albums.
The subject of retreading is especially relevant in the final song on the album, “REPRISE” which, as the name suggests, reprises facets of the album, specifically the title track “BRIGHTSIDE”. While I find “REPRISE” to be one of the more enjoyable tracks on the album and it serves as a suitable thematic bookend, the album has not earned this reprisal. On Billie Eilish’s debut album When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go?, her final song “goodbye” quotes every song previous in reverse order, yet even in its callbacks the song felt new and subversive in comparison to the rest of the album; “goodbye” was an original, purposeful track on a sonically experimental and diverse album. “REPRISE” would likely feel earned and desired had BRIGHTSIDE been longer, more stimulating, or distinctive; however, it merely fades into the blur of the rest of the sonic portrait.
Part of the issue with BRIGHTSIDE stems from The Lumineers’s perpetuation of old habits, falling back on tried and true methods musically without imbuing the deep emotive quality that they so often manage to bottle within their music. Perhaps the experience of the album would be different for a first time listener who has never heard the band’s other work, as the music wouldn’t feel repetitive and reaching, and the highs of the album would far outweigh the lows.
Many other reviews of the album describe BRIGHTSIDE as if it is a breath of fresh air during trying times, which seems to be the antithesis of their previous work. Cleopatra (2016) and III (2019) are weighty, trenchant works of art which contain the power to deeply impact their listeners. The Lumineers (2012) is likely the closest to BRIGHTSIDE in its lighthearted nature, but the music’s touching and passionate undercurrent contrasts the airy and light undertones of BRIGHTSIDE. Fans expecting to find tracks on the album as dynamic and charming as “Flowers in Your Hair” or as relatable and gut-wrenching as “It Wasn’t Easy to Be Happy for You” or as down-right heartbreaking as “My Eyes.”
Ultimately, BRIGHTSIDE plays it safe and fails to excite listeners or elevate The Lumineers’s discography. To quote the band’s iconic line from their masterpiece “Stubborn Love”: “the opposite of love’s indifference.” I hope the next album The Lumineers releases has enough spark and intention within it to render listeners either lovers or haters of the work, that it contains enough substance to be divisive, rather than leaving fans like me woefully indifferent, as is the case here.
