The Lumineers released a new album this September called III with 13 tracks. The quality of the music on the album flows with their previous sound. It’s great that they have stayed in their niche of folk music with an acoustic angle, such as the piano still having hooks in the riffs, which is pleasing to the ears. I find the songs are still written with some ambiguity but with a fable-like structure. So, when listening to the album, it’s like listening to a story. That’s one thing I’ve always enjoyed about The Lumineers when listening to them. In this album, the theme is addiction, specifically how alcoholism affects people and the people who are affected by it.
The band approached this by dividing the album “in three chapters corresponding with the album’s 10 tracks, [in which] we follow three generations of a working-class family” as per the description in The Lumineers’ official short film trailer for the album. This approach is brilliant because it covers another aspect of addiction: how it can be a generational issue. The main character and the beginning of the cycle starts with Gloria Sparks who appears in the music video. She is the first chapter of their story. The other two chapters focus on Gloria’s son and grandson, and how they deal with addiction themselves. There are 10 music videos, in three chapters, of this family’s history.
Since this album starts with Gloria Sparks, I find that that the songs written about her hold great significance. The three songs about her are “Donna,” “Gloria,” and “Living in the City.” These songs show us that she can’t cope well with the traumas from her life; she tries to compensate for this with alcohol. For example, the first verse of the song “Gloria” reads: “Gloria, I smell it on your breath / Gloria, booze and peppermint / Gloria, no one said enough is enough / Gloria, they found you on the floor / Gloria, my hand was tied to yours / And, Gloria, did you finally see that enough is enough?”
With these lines, I felt moved by Gloria’s suffering and how she can’t find any other ways to deal with her pain. “No one said enough is enough” is such a strong line because everyone is too scared to talk about the hard subjects such as intervening in someone’s alcoholism. Someone who has experienced this kind of struggle from either side can understand this one aspect.
Another addiction that is explored would be gambling in the song “Jimmy Sparks,” based on Gloria’s son. The lyrics hit hard on the desperation that Jimmy is experiencing trying to fulfill his addiction to gambling, and the consequences following his risky behaviour as well as his responsibilities of caring for a child. He attempts to do it all but ultimately fails.
“Broke Jimmy’s habits got in mountains and mountains of debt / And now the sharks are coming back to collect, oh-oh / They stripped his jewelry and the boots off Jim’s feet / They kick him out of the car and said we’ll give you a week / Eight miles from home and only 18 degrees / It was 3 a.m.” The song ends with Jimmy’s son seeing his father on the side of the road, not recognizing him, but not picking him up based on Jimmy’s teachings of his worldview, in this case not to pick up hitchhikers. The irony has a rather sad twist, but it’s brilliant for the fact it shows the weight of bad decisions being made.
I highly recommend watching the music videos for this album; it’s quite the experience. They put a lot of effort into making a video for every song that’s a part of the Sparks’ family journey. It’s like watching a movie musical; it’s easier to sympathize with the emotions experienced by the family dealing with addiction when they’re exposed in a visual format.
The Lumineers have held true to their folk and bardic sound with this concept album. Telling this story about Gloria’s lineage can help their listeners peer into and understand the difficulties and struggles of dealing with addiction. I find this album to be a success, and I hope to catch them in concert!
