The Strumbellas

One Liner: Poppy alternative folk with that one hit about spirits in my head and guns that rattle, or something.

Poster Position: 12

Thoughts:  I just read something about these guys in Rolling Stone where they were apparently failing and were super jealous of the Lumineers and Mumford because those guys had made this folky sound into popular tracks.  So they started taking apart Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry to figure out what made their songs into pop hits, and integrated that into their new sound.  With that in their ears, they created their big hit, "Spirits."

That track has 27.3 million streams on Spotify, and their closest track is at 2.5 million, so you can tell which tune has hit the radio waves.  I honestly thought this was a Lumineers track when I first heard it.  Pretty good track.  These dudes are from Canada, and although I'd never heard of them before now, I hear exactly what RS was talking about in their story.  "Spirits" (and other tunes on 2016's Hope) is definitely more polished and poppy, while their debut EP (2009's The Strumbellas EP) sounds like bluegrass folk stuff with no pop lean, all banjos and harmonies and lyrics about woodsmen.  It's actually really enjoyable.
After that five song EP, they put out a 2012 album, called My Father and the Hunter, which sticks true to the bluegrass sound and is also good.  Very Lumineers sounding, maybe a little Avett Brothers too.  I think that is their best album of the three full length albums.  2014's We Still Move on Dance Floors won a Juno award, has a pretty spot-on Beach Boy's song ("Sailing"), and is also good, but I think the earlier album is better.  I think the worst album of the bunch is the new one that is trying to access the pop vote.  Not a bad album, just third place in the bunch.

"In This Life" is the most popular track from an album other than Hope, this one is from We Still Move on Dance Floors and has just over a million Spotify streams.

Great song.  That should be a real hit.  I think I'd go see these cats do their thing if I had the time in the schedule.  While I may think that their older stuff sounds better, their new stuff is still pretty solid. Cool new find.