Automatic (Deluxe Edition)

the take

I've never really been all into music by The Lumineers. I only know of them because my ex from hella long ago was into them and tried to convince me to give The Lumineers a chance. I think I know of their song "Ho Hey", but that might be because it was kind of popular at the time. (Update: I looked up the song on Spotify and yep, that's the only one I remembered.) It was okay enough, to be honest. I wouldn't mind hearing it in a Starbucks on a cool weekend morning while ordering my Frappuccino or some shit. Outside of that, their music wasn't for me. So why did I run across the band's name again all these years later and decide to give their latest album a listen? A part of me hoped that with a more mature music taste and mindset, I can finally get into their music once and for all! Heh. NOPE. This is about as mid as it can get. The material on here just sounds like knockoffs of "Ho Hey" to me. The production didn't really stand out to me, as each song sounded the same to me. Not instrumentally, but melodic-wise, I felt like my listening experience was going for a loop. The songwriting on here is on the same level as the production on here: not terrible, just good enough to get by. It was difficult to distinguish the standout tracks, but I actually enjoyed "A Song for You" and "Plasticine" slightly more than the rest. I didn't know what to expect going into this, but I also didn't know I'd leave this album with literally nothing. It's not great, but not bad. The Lumineers' "Automatic" just kind of... exists, I guess? I mean, it falls in line with the rest of their music that just exists at this point.