It could very easily be said that 2012 was the year musicians raised their voices and proved that some sounds need technology to be heard. Folk Music reasserted its grip on imaginations as a kind of countrer-cultural movement in a most incredible way, and the public really appreciated it; bands like Mumford & Sons, My Morning Jacket, The Lone Bellow, The Avett Brothers and dozens of others crashed the gates of pop music glory and stole music away from computers and digital music recording platforms – but one of the most remarkable success stories was that of Denver's Lumineers.
The rise of The Lumineers was simply astounding; after seeming to come out of nowhere, the band's self-titled debut album hit North America (both Canada and the U.S.) like a ton of bricks. The band's songs appeared in advertisements, the band made high profile television appearances, award nominations flooded in (most notably from Billboard and the Grammys) and the band's posture in pop music did nothing but improve every time something new came along – it was a fantastic event to observe.
The change of year hasn't seen the excitement around the band wane exactly, but now Dualtone and Dine Alone Records have released a deluxe edition of The Lumineers' self-titled first album to stoke it again anyway; adding five extra tracks to the album's run-time as well as a DVD, the deluxe edition lives up to its title and easily captures imaginations again – in much the same way it did before.
Now, it does need to be conceded that the five extra songs appended to the CD portion of this set don't exactly enlarge the authoritative stamp of the album, but they certainly do enrich it. “Ain't Nobody's Fault" will cause smirks to emerge from nowhere on the faces of listeners as the song recalls images of a makeshift bar and stage at a speakeasy or other legally questionable watering hole vividly, and then proceeds to make them almost palpable as the slow “Nobody Knows You (When You're Down And Out)”-esque melody and progression builds up a head of steam and singer Wesley Schultz weeps and testifies on top like it's the end of the night and he's going home alone. While it's good, the song's really not essential (other songs on The Lumineers already have similar sentiments wrapped), but it's not intended to be; no one said this song shouldn't fall off the album, so it did when it was originally released but, now, it can easily be present as a special gift to the fans that the original release of the record already made.
Little gifts like the one represented by “Ain't Nobody's Problem” end up appearing in abundance as the bonus tracks stack up. While “This Must Be The Place” proves to be pretty expendable, “Elouise” plays like the early demo of a song which could easily have been an excellent centerpiece for an album; that it fell off of The Lumineers speaks to its enduring quality (although, really, everybody already knows how good it is) and fans will still feel incredibly lucky to be able to hear it in this context. The same is true of the affecting live version of “Slow It Down” which closes the disc. There, the band manages to make a big Nashville crowd sound shockingly intimate and, as the band is so adept at doing, drawing listeners into the song gently before causing hearts to race as they build in intensity. That cathartic emotional exchange is, of course, what won many listeners to the band in 2012, but that they're able to prove that they could have done it just as easily with these bonus songs (were they included on the record) is pretty impressive.
Artist:
www.thelumineers.com/
www.myspace.com/thelumineers
www.facebook.com/TheLumineers
www.twitter.com/thelumineers
Album:
The Deluxe Edition of The Lumineers is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
