Cleopatra [Limited Cloud Burst]

The highly anticipated 2016 sophomore album from The Lumineers featuring chart topping singles “Ophelia” “Cleopatra” and “Angela.”

The mood is more existential, and the lyrics are often more oblique; some songs are named after Shakespearean women, like “Ophelia” and “Cleopatra.” Wesley Schultz’s guitar is almost always electric rather than acoustic, with the amplification opening hollow places rather than harnessing power; it’s joined in bare-bones arrangements by Jeremiah Fraites, on piano and simplistic drums, and Neyla Pekarek, on cello. The comradeship of the first album’s backup vocals has all but disappeared.

There’s a deep sense of deliberation about the album, as if every word and every sound had been weighed and pondered, not for radio consumption, but out of an ascetic craftsmanship. It’s a move away from crowd-pleasing ditties, a valiant turn inward and, at times — in “Gale Song,” “In the Light” and “Angela” — the songs reach a distillation of yearning and solitude. But over the course of an entire album, a glint of the Lumineers’ old whimsy would have helped.

— The New York Times