After toiling in obscurity for years, New York-via-Denver trio The Lumineers scored a breakthrough hit with 2012's "Ho Hey": a fun, sweeping, unassumingly feel-good, communally-spirited, catchy radio-friendly hit that catapulted them into the mainstream. But mainstream limelight came with major anxiety. As NYTimes' Jon Pareles notes, "The Lumineers were never entirely the smiley, foot-stomping folkies they seemed to be on “Ho Hey,” their inescapable Top 10 hit in 2012", and had to walk the fine line between achieving popularity and artistic integrity with their sophomore effort.
Their second album, Cleopatra (2016) places its 'serious' intentions upfront, with the album title and lead single "Ophelia" referencing two of Shakespeare's notable female characters (there are no references to Portia, Miranda, Desdemona or Juliet, however). Some of the 'populist' folk notes are still present, like the tambourines and bass drums, but the lyrics are decidedly existential, expressing ambivalence towards love, life, fame and success:
'Ah, ah, when I was youngerI, I should've known betterAnd I can't feel no remorseAnd you don't feel nothing backI, I got a new girlfriend hereFeels like he's on topAnd I don't feel no remorseAnd you can't see past my blindness[Chorus]Oh, OpheliaYou've been on my mind, girl, since the floodOh, OpheliaHeaven help the fool who falls in love'
Source of Lyrics: Genius.com
Songwriters Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites deliver existential angst with a radio-friendly packaging (catchy chorus, instances of manic piano chords, stomping blues instrumentation), building up the song slowly to create pathos. As Schultz revealed to EW, 'Ophelia' can be interpreted as an erstwhile lover and a metaphor for fame:
“Ophelia is a vague reference to people falling in love with fame. That spotlight can seem like an endless buffet, but in reality, you’re just shiny, bright, and new to people for a quick moment — and then you have the rest of you life to live. It’s about caring so much about the people around me, and wondering if we’re all going to be alright.”
Cleopatra had its share of mixed reviews, the general sentiment being that The Lumineers' infectious percussion-driven energy from early tracks like "Ophelia" dissipated towards the end of the album, to give way to a series of songs with a decidedly more sombre, melancholic, and serious tone. Hopefully The Lumineers will be able to get the balance between pleasing the crowd and fulfilling their aesthetic impulses precisely right with their third album.
