''The Lumineers'' is the debut studio album by American folk rock band

the Lumineers The Lumineers are an American alternative folk band based in Denver, Colorado. The founding members are Wesley Schultz (lead vocals, guitar) and Jeremiah Fraites (drums, percussion, piano). Schultz and Fraites began writing and performing toge ...

. The album was released in the United States on April 3, 2012, and contains the singles "

Ho Hey "Ho Hey" is a song by American folk rock band the Lumineers. It was released on June 4, 2012, as the lead single from their self-titled debut studio album (2012). The music video was released on March 11, 2012. "Ho Hey" reached number one for 18 ...

", "

Stubborn Love "Stubborn Love" is a song by American folk rock band the Lumineers. It was released in 2012 as the second single from their debut self-titled An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believe ...

" and "

Submarines A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely o ...

". The album peaked at number 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart. The vinyl LP version of the record was pressed by

United Record Pressing United Record Pressing (founded as Southern Plastics) is a vinyl pressing plant located in Nashville, Tennessee, that has been in operation since 1949. United has pressed records for such artists as The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ja ...

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

Reception

Commercial

''The Lumineers'' debuted on the US ''Billboard'' 200 at number 45 on its week of release with sales of 10,000. The success of the song "

" however began to drive sales of the album, and it eventually reached a peak of number 2 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The album sold 1,700,000 copies in the US as of April 2016. The album debuted and peaked at number 8 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. It sold 421,177 copies in the UK as of April 2016.

Critical

''The Lumineers'' by The Lumineers received mostly positive reviews. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 73, based on 9 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". The album garnered both positive and mixed ratings from critics. To this, the positive reviews are from

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'', ''

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'', ''

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

'', ''

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'', '' Paste'' and ''

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'' magazine. On the other hand, the mixed reviews came from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

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'' and ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...

'' magazine. Steve Leggett of AllMusic believed that "each track is inventive". To this, Joe Breen of the ''Irish Times'' said the music needs to be communal because it is essential to the collective and joint mission between the band and the fans, which is "underlined by elemental instrumentation – guitar, cello and drums; in the manner in which songs of call and response become sites of collaboration and celebration; in the vernacularity of the thoughtful lyrics." Lydia Jenkin of ''The New Zealand Herald'' said that the music is enjoyable, but the music is even more so entertaining "live (when they rope in further players to help fill out the many layers of piano, drums, percussion, and guitars)." Alexandra Fletcher of ''Paste'' proclaimed that the "record is instantly gratifying—and not in the hasty, shallow way often found in pre-fab pop songs either." Melanie Haupt of ''The Austin Chronicle'' found the release to be "uniquely American in all the best ways: gritty, determined, soaked in sweat and love and drive." Similarly, Graeme Thomson of ''Uncut'' called it "primal, pounding folk music", and he found that it was facilitated with a subdued amount of "drama." Lastly, Thomson proclaimed that "Nothing is overcooked," which means the sound can readily and "easily erecreated by the band on some makeshift stage." Conversely, Phil Mongredien of ''The Observer'' faulted the album because the "songs float prettily", which does not create an impression because the band produced "

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-light and gossamer-memorable" music. In agreement,

Will Hermes Will Hermes (born December 27, 1960 in Jamaica, Queens, New York City) is an American author, broadcaster, journalist and critic who has written extensively about popular music. He is a longtime contributor to ''Rolling Stone'' and to National Pu ...

of ''Rolling Stone'' told that the music here "basically argues that a bunch of Americans can lead slowly-accelerating lovelorn singalongs just as well as UK yankophile

Marcus Mumford Marcus Oliver Johnstone Mumford (born 31 January 1987) is a British singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is best known as the lead singer of the band folk band Mumford & Sons. He also plays a number of instruments with the group ...

, bringing fiddle scratching, marching-band snare rolls, parlor-room piano chords, and Kingston Trio guitar strumming to an album that's long on nostalgic reverie." But, Robert Copsey of ''Digital Spy'' vowed that "they've still got plenty more to get off their chest", so this album gives them the potential to get that done.

Cover art

According to Wesley Schultz, the album's cover art is a childhood photograph of Schultz's mother Judy and her mother, Schultz's grandmother.

Track listing

Personnel

The Lumineers *

Wesley Schultz Wesley Keith Schultz (born December 30, 1982) is the guitarist and lead vocalist for the American folk rock band The Lumineers. Life and career Schultz grew up in Ramsey, New Jersey,Neyla Pekarek Neyla Pekarek (; born September 4, 1986) is an American cellist, vocalist, and pianist. She was a member of the folk rock band The Lumineers from 2010 to 2018. Early life Pekarek was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. She grew up in a househol ...

– vocals, cello, keyboards, mandolin, accordion, drums, percussion * Stelth Ulvang – keyboards, guitar, accordion, mandolin, bouzouki, vocals * Ben Wahamaki – electric bass, vocals Additional musicians * Adam Trachsel – electric bass, upright bass * Lauren Jacobson – violin * All the Lumineers and their Friends – group vocals, stomps, hand claps

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lumineers, The 2012 debut albums The Lumineers albums Dualtone Records albums