LUMINEERS - Cleopatra LP

With 11 tracks and clocking in at a brisk 35 minutes, Cleopatra feels slight. Every song is less than four minutes, although compared to The Lumineers’ first album, the purpose is much more serious. There’s nothing as silly as the paranoid “Submarines” or as danceable as “Classy Girls”. The biggest difference, however is the percussion. The main ingredients that turned The Lumineers from indie folk into folk pop were the toe-tapping claps, smacks, and bangs. On Cleopatra, many of the tracks make it through the second verse before adding any kind of percussion, and some don’t use any at all. These songs tend to have a slow build, and are no less dramatic for being quiet.