''Brightside'' (stylised in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

) is the fourth studio album by American

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

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 ...

, released on January 14, 2022, through

Dualtone Dualtone Records is an American record label specializing in folk, Americana, and indie rock. It was founded in 2001 by Scott Robinson and Dan Herrington. The company is run by Robinson and the label's president, Paul Roper. Albums are distribute ...

and

Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ...

. It was primarily produced by Simone Felice and David Baron. The album was preceded by the release of three singles: the title track, "Big Shot", and "A.M. Radio".

Recording

Simone Felice, producer of the Lumineers' ''

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

'' and '' III'', returned to produce the album alongside David Baron, who also served as mixer and

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. The album was recorded in two sessions that took place in early ("winter and spring") 2021 at Baron's Sun Mountain Studios in

Boiceville, New York Boiceville is a hamlet in the town of Olive, Ulster County, New York, United States. Located at the intersection of New York State Route 28 and New York State Route 28A, Boiceville is within Catskill State Park. Boiceville was named for Lemuel Boi ...

. Lead single "Brightside" was recorded in a single day. Singer-guitarist

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,Jeremiah Fraites Jeremiah Caleb Fraites (born January 17, 1986) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the co-founder of The Lumineers and is a songwriter for the band. He was born and raised in Ramsey, New Jersey. Early ...

performed most of the instrumentation themselves, with Baron providing keyboards and backing vocals. Other contributions came from

the Felice Brothers The Felice Brothers are an American folk rock/country rock band from New York.Bumgardner, Ed, 8 November 2007'Music Notes: Felice Brothers are earthy, their music visceralRelish Now!''. History The Felice Brothers got their start as a band pl ...

' James Felice, singer-songwriter

Diana DeMuth Diana DeMuth is an American singer-songwriter from Concord, Massachusetts, Concord, Massachusetts. History DeMuth began writing songs at the age of eleven, and released her first EP in 2008 at the age of fourteen. This was followed in 2011 with ...

, touring members Byron Isaacs and Lauren Jacobson, and backing singer Cindy Mizelle.

Critical reception

Upon release, ''Brightside'' received positive reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...

. 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 critics, the album has 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 72 out of 100, which indicates "generally favorable reviews" based on 4 reviews.

Track listing

Notes * All tracks in the standard track listing are stylized in

Personnel

Credits adapted from the media notes of ''Brightside''. The Lumineers *

– piano, drums, drum programming, Firewood,

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, electric guitar, tambourine, electric bass,

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

Additional musicians * Simone Felice – background vocals, tambourine, claps, maracas * David Baron – synthesizers, Rhodes, sub bass,

Hammond B3 Hammond may refer to: People * Hammond Innes (1913–1998), English novelist * Hammond (surname) * Justice Hammond (disambiguation) Places Antarctica * Hammond Glacier, Antarctica Australia *Hammond, South Australia, a small settlement in South ...

minimoog The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popul ...

mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

* Lauren Jacobson – violin, background vocals * Byron Isaacs – bass, background vocals *

– background vocals * James Felice – background vocals * Cindy Mizelle – background vocals * Alex Waterman – cello * Palenville Firehouse – siren Production * Simone Felice – producer * David Baron – producer, mixing, engineering * Andrew Mendelson – mastering * Taylor Chadwick – assistant engineer * Andrew Darby – assistant engineer * Bobbi Giel – assistant engineer * Luke Armentrout – assistant engineer * Renée Hikari – studio assistant * Brian Hubble – piano technician * Rick Mullen – guitar technician * Derek Brown – drum technician * Sara Full – studio coordinator * Anthony Hook – Sara Full's assistant Artwork * Nicholas Sutton Bell – creative director, photographer

Charts

References

{{The Lumineers 2022 albums Decca Records albums Dualtone Records albums The Lumineers albums