Cleopatra [Limited Cloud Burst]

Description

The highly anticipated 2016 sophomore album from The Lumineers featuring chart topping singles Ophelia Cleopatra and Angela.

The mood is more existential, and the lyrics are often more oblique; some songs are named after Shakespearean women, like Ophelia andCleopatra.Wesley Schultzs guitar is almost always electric rather than acoustic, with the amplification opening hollow places rather than harnessing power; its joined in bare-bones arrangements by Jeremiah Fraites, on piano and simplistic drums, and Neyla Pekarek, on cello. The comradeship of the first albums backup vocals has all but disappeared.

Theres a deep sense of deliberation about the album, as if every word and every sound had been weighed and pondered, not for radio consumption, but out of an ascetic craftsmanship. Its a move away from crowd-pleasing ditties, a valiant turn inward and, at times in Gale Song, In the Light and Angela the songs reach a distillation of yearning and solitude. But over the course of an entire album, a glint of the Lumineers old whimsy would have helped.

The New York Times