Lumineers Preview 5th Album, ‘Automatic,’ With ‘Same Old Song’ Single

Alt-folk duo The Lumineers have announced that the release date for their upcoming fifth studio album, Automatic, which is due out on February 14 on Dualtone. The Denver group comprised of singer/guitarist Wesley Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites previewed their follow-up to 2022’s Brightside on Tuesday (Jan. 7) with the LP’s rollicking first single, “Same Old Song.”

“Hey Mama would you pay my rent/ Would you let me crash in your basement/ ‘Cause anyone of us could make it big or could end up dead on the pavement/ And if i was to die/ If the plane went down and you survived,” Schultz sings over Fraites’ insistent, metronomic beat.

The track then soars to a yearning, aching peak on the chorus, on which Schultz keens, “Same old song/ We sing the same old song/ We sing the same old, same old song.” The song’s release was accompanied by a video directed by filmmaker Anaïs LaRocca (Hundred Waters), in which the pair perform it on a soundstage backed by evocative VHS-like videos echoing the lyrics.

In a statement announcing the album, Schultz said it marks 20 years of his songwriting partnership with Fraites. “The album explores some of the absurdities of the modern world, like the increasingly blurry line between what’s real and what’s not, and the variety of ways we numb ourselves while trying to combat both boredom and overstimulation,” he said, noting that the LP was recorded in “less than a month.”

The statement adds that the album will find the duo “traveling new sonic and thematic terrain with their most raw and personal collection thus far.” It notes that it was recorded with Woodstock, NY-based producer/songwriter/ keyboardist David Baron, who “outfitted Woodstock’s Utopia studio like the legendary Abbey Road facility, installing both vintage and cutting-edge gear,” where the pair performed the song “as a unit, leaving fewer opportunities to fix mistakes, or refine the sound.”

To capture that live magic, they outfitted the studio with two sets of drums, three pianos and an array of amps, guitars and vocal mics, “allowing the musicians to pivot and capture as much as possible with minimal delay.”

The Lumineers are slated to kick off the tour in support of the album on Saturday (Jan. 11) with a gig at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, CA at the iHeartRadio ALTer EGO show, followed by their own headlining gig at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, ON on February 16.

Watch the “Same Old Song” video and check out the Automatic track list below.