THE LUMINEERS - Cleopatra (Reissue) - CD [SEP 27]

CD (2024 Reissue)

Cleopatra proves Schultz and Fraites - along with cellist/vocalist Neyla Pekarek- are neither taking their good fortune for granted, nor sitting back on their laurels. With the help of producer Simone Felice (The Felice Brothers, The Avett Brothers), the man Wesley calls "our shaman," the band ensconced themselves in Clubhouse, a recording studio high atop a hill in rural Rhinebeck, N.Y., not far from Woodstock. The Lumineers then set about trying to make musical sense of their three-year-plus roller coaster ride. 

"We took the same approach this time as we did with the first album, recording demos in a small house we rented in the original Denver neighborhood where we first moved," explains Wesley, contributing the lyrical ideas while collaborating on the music with Jer, who tackled a variety of instruments, including guitar, the very prominent piano and trademark tribal drums.

"Wes handles all the lyrics", says Jeremiah, "and Wes and I come up with all the rest together - music, melody, and structure. There are no rules or titles in our writing process, just merely chipping away slowly until we both agree we have something fantastic."

"The record is our greatest hits reflecting what's happened to us over the last three years," added Wesley. "We tried to come up with the best possible version of every song, so we recorded a lot of different iterations, changing the tempos, dressing 'em up, stripping 'em down. It took a lot of work to make them sound so easy. We're very passionate about the process. It was a very intense and beautiful experience. There was a lot of battling, a lot of tears, but some amazing stuff came out, and at the end, we were much better off. It transformed our relationship."

Cleopatra is named after the title track, inspired by a woman from the Republic of Georgia, an acquaintance of Wesley's wife's best friend whom he met while visiting there. The hard-bitten woman drove a taxi with a can of beer between her legs and a cigarette dangling from her mouth, having survived a hard-scrabble life, pining for the man who got away after her father died. "There was this level of defiance about her," nodded Wesley. "She was accepting her fate, but still felt misunderstood."

Cleopatra also deals with what Wesley terms "the elephant in the room," the band's success and the way it can sometimes put a target on your back. The syncopated piano rolls in "Ophelia" ("I got a little paycheck/You got big plans/You gotta move/I don't feel nothin' at all"), the organic sound of fingers squeaking on guitar strings in "Angela" ("The strangers in this town/They raise you up just to cut you down") and the Faustian bargain described in "My Eyes" ("Oh, the devil's inside/You open the door/You gave him a ride/Too young to know/Too old to admit/But you couldn't see how it ends") consider the perils of getting what you wish for, with everyone knowing your name, and your songs.

Schultz demonstrates his keen literary eye and ear for narrative description in "The Gun Song," in which he recalls rummaging through his mild-mannered, progressive, intellectual, psychologist father's sock drawer after his death and finding a "Smith & Wesson pistol," making him wonder what other mysteries his dad kept from him. "Long Way from Home," its 5/4 signature reminiscent of Dylan's "Don't Think Twice (It's Alright)" or "Shelter from the Storm," tells of hope and desperation, a double-edged sword which can both sustain or ultimately, "fuck you up," Wesley noted ruefully. The title phrase repeats three different times at the end of the individual verses, each carrying a different meaning. Sings Schultz: "Held on to hope/Like a noose/Like a rope/God and medicine take no mercy on him..." The characters in Cleopatra are hanging on for dear life, trying to find reasons to believe, or creating some on their own just to survive with some sort of grace.

Tracklist: 

1.    Sleep On The Floor
2.    Ophelia
3.    Cleopatra
4.    Gun Song
5.    Angela
6.    In The Light
7.    Gale Song
8.    Long Way From Home
9.    Sick In The Head
10.    My Eyes
11.    Patience