BRIGHTSIDE
Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites’ fourth studio album as The Lumineers is an indie folk-rock treatise on identifying and striving for hope—released at a moment in time when optimism may not feel like the prevailing mood. Comforts abound: on the title track, “BRIGHTSIDE,” which wasrecorded in a single day and serves as a love song for everyone; on “A.M. RADIO,” an acoustic narrative ditty with a salon sing-along chorus, featuring touring members Byron Isaacs and Lauren Jacobson, Cindy Mizelle, The Felice Brothers’ James Felice, and singer-songwriter Diana DeMuth; on the tear-jerking piano ballad “ROLLERCOASTER”; and on the Springsteen-informed stomper “NEVER REALLY MINE.” If there is a thesis statement to *BRIGHTSIDE*, it’s “WHERE WE ARE,” with its ascending piano melody and the affirming chorus, “Where we are/I don’t know where we are/But it will be okay.”
After the ambitious, darkly thematic song cycle III, Brightside comes as something of a tonal reset for the Lumineers.
Despite breaking out big-time in 2011 when 'Hey Ho' was absolutely everywhere, 2021 might have been the biggest year in The Lumineers' history.