III

"Schultz and co-writer Jeremiah Fraites etch telling details into their story that make the sadness seem earned and realized, if lugubrious. III moves at a deliberate, nearly dreary pace that forces a listener to pay attention, and while it can take some effort to meet the Lumineers on their own terms, it's nevertheless easy to admire the ambition behind the project".

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"With III, the Lumineers are really upping their game - and it's possibly their finest album yet. A harrowing story told in three "acts" of three or four songs apiece, it follows the fictional Sparks family through three generations of devastation wrought by addiction, describing in stark detail the tragic, violence-filled lives of a woman (Gloria), her son Jimmy and her grandson Junior ... Singer Wesley Schultz has been open about the fact that addiction within his own family was the inspiration for this record, and as his voice cracks during the "Leader of the Landslide" line "maybe when she's dead and gone I'll get some sleep" it's a sad reminder that this ambitious, impressive record came from a true, dark place".

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