The Lumineers’ III & its Despairing Beauty
The Lumineers are a folk rock band out of Denver, Colorado and are well-renowned for their ability to tell beautiful stories through their songs. Their most recent album, III, takes the cake on this front, as it is composed of three different chapters that each tell their own part of a much larger, much more complex, story. The album follows the Sparks family: Chapter 1 tells of Gloria Sparks, Chapter 2 tells of her grandson, Junior Sparks, and Chapter 3 tells of her son and Junior’s father, Jimmy Sparks. Each of these chapters are accompanied by music videos, allowing you to see for yourself the inner-workings of a greatly disparaged family. By delving into the lives of these family members, the Lumineers paint a picture of how addiction — specifically, alcoholism — has the capability to absolutely ravage a family for generations to come. Intimately vulnerable, deeply upsetting, and overwhelmingly beautiful, III brings forth a new type of story-telling — a type that leaves you both stunned and touched in a way you’ve never been before.
Chapter 1: Gloria Sparks
The songs that make up the first segment of the album include “Donna”, “Life in the City”, and “Gloria”, and take place seemingly in the 1970s. Gloria’s battle with depression and alcoholism take herself and her family down some very dark roads as the three attempt to navigate life. Through these songs and their cinematic parallels, we witness how alcohol addiction can truly ravage not only a person, but her family as well.
Chapter 2: Junior Sparks
“Junior Sparks”, the second of the three chapters, tells the narrative of Gloria Sparks’ grandson. Junior is the child of Jimmy Sparks, Gloria’s son. From the three songs within this chapter — “It Wasn’t Easy to be Happy for You”, “Leader of the Landslide”, and “Left for Denver” — we can deduce that Junior is undergoing one of the most pivotal stages of his adolescence while caught within the throws of managing his father’s addiction.
Chapter 3: Jimmy Sparks
The third and final chapter of III tells Jimmy Sparks’ narrative. Similar to his mother, Gloria, Jimmy is an addict. As explained in the songs “Jimmy Sparks”, “April”, and “Salt and the Sea”, life has dealt him a nasty hand, resulting in him turning to gambling as a means of making ends meet. A seemingly bad father with good intentions, Jimmy battles a constant crusade enabled by his mother’s alcoholism, his wife’s leaving him, and his own addictive practices.