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Alt-folk duo The Lumineers have announced that the release date for their upcoming fifth studio album, Automatic, which is due out on February 14 on Dualtone. The Denver group comprised of singer/guitarist Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites previewed their follow-up to 2022’s Brightside on Tuesday (Jan. 7) with the LP’s rollicking first single, “Same Old Song.”
“Hey Mama would you pay my rent/ Would you let me crash in your basement/ ‘Cause anyone of us could make it big or could end up dead on the pavement/ And if i was to die/ If the plane went down and you survived,” Schultz sings over Fraites’ insistent, metronomic beat.
The track then soars to a yearning, aching peak on the chorus, on which Schultz keens, “Same old song/ We sing the same old song/ We sing the same old, same old song.” The song’s release was accompanied by a video directed by filmmaker Anaïs LaRocca (Hundred Waters), in which the pair perform it on a soundstage backed by evocative VHS-like videos echoing the lyrics.
In a statement announcing the album, Schultz said it marks 20 years of his songwriting partnership with Fraites. “The album explores some of the absurdities of the modern world, like the increasingly blurry line between what’s real and what’s not, and the variety of ways we numb ourselves while trying to combat both boredom and overstimulation,” he said, noting that the LP was recorded in “less than a month.”
The statement adds that the album will find the duo “traveling new sonic and thematic terrain with their most raw and personal collection thus far.” It notes that it was recorded with Woodstock, NY-based producer/songwriter/ keyboardist David Baron, who “outfitted Woodstock’s Utopia studio like the legendary Abbey Road facility, installing both vintage and cutting-edge gear,” where the pair performed the song “as a unit, leaving fewer opportunities to fix mistakes, or refine the sound.”
To capture that live magic, they outfitted the studio with two sets of drums, three pianos and an array of amps, guitars and vocal mics, “allowing the musicians to pivot and capture as much as possible with minimal delay.”
The Lumineers are slated to kick off the tour in support of the album on Saturday (Jan. 11) with a gig at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA at the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show, followed by their own headlining gig at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, ON on February 16.
Watch the “Same Old Song” video and check out the Automatic track list below.
Automatic track list:
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Damon Albarn has shared aims of working with musicians “in Palestine and Israel” amid the war, and called the way it was addressed in Bob Vylan‘s Glastonbury set “a spectacular misfire”
Talking to The Times about his passion project, multinational collective Africa Express, the Blur frontman said, “part of the huge issue of Palestine is the way that their identity is being eroded so brutally”.
The UN has found Israel’s military actions to be consistent with genocide, and more than 57,800 people have since been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry (via BBC News). Israel has continually denied that what’s going on in Palestine is considered a genocide, and has argued that it has not partaken in any war crimes.
“Africa Express could go into Palestine,” Albarn added. “It’s not about politics, it’s about culture. And so I would also want to go to Israel and bring people together. If I was asked to go to Russia, I would go. I’d go to Ukraine too.”
The comments were made on the heels of Bob Vylan playing a headline-grabbing set on Glastonbury’s West Holts Stage, in which they voiced their support for Palestine, criticised Israel and led the crowd in a chant calling for death to the Israel Defence Forces. The subsequent fallout saw them come under a criminal investigation and have shows in Germany and France dropped, while their agents have reportedly cut ties with them, and their US visas have been revoked.
“It was one of the most spectacular misfires I’ve seen in my life,” Albarn said of the performance. “Especially when he started to goose-step in tennis gear. I mean I’ve had my moments — not quite as catastrophic as that but you do get carried away. The old testosterone gets you going. But it’s unfortunate. Everyone’s just so hysterical.”
He had previously used an appearance at the Worthy Farm festival alongside Bombay Bicycle Club to ask the crowd how they felt about Palestine. “Are you pro-Palestine?” he asked festival-goers last year. “Do you feel that’s an unfair war?”
“I’ve been doing this a very long time and I still haven’t got any bloody answers,” he continued to The Times. “You want to say what you believe in and what you feel. That’s important, but it comes with huge caveats. We live and learn, or not.
“People get angry, say stupid things because they’re not communicating with each other properly. Therein lies the rub, as dear Shakespeare once said.”
As for Bob Vylan, they played their first show since Glastonbury at The 100 Club last week, and urged fans to stop repeating the “death to the IDF” chant when a group of gig-goers attempted to revive it.
As shown in footage captured by The Standard, frontman Bobby Vylan immediately pointed at those chanting and said: “No no no no no, you’re gonna get me in trouble. Apparently, every other chant is fine, but you lot will get me in trouble.” He then led the crowd in a chant of “Free, free Palestine”.
A BBC Music boss reportedly stepped down following the backlash against the Glastonbury gig being broadcast live, with the corporation describing Vylan’s comments as “offensive and deplorable”. They have also said they will no longer live broadcast any performances deemed “high risk” in the future.
A number of artists spoke out in support of Vylan, including Lambrini Girls, Amyl & The Sniffers and Soft Play, as well as Massive Attack, who urged the media to focus on “what is happening daily to the people of Gaza”, and Chuck D, who said “we have to be able to fight for peace and love by any means necessary”.
Bob Vylan were dropped from Manchester’s Radar Festival too, although organisers made it clear that they did not want to do this. Then, several bands pulled out of the festival in a show of solidarity with Bob Vylan, including Hero In Error.
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