Songfacts®:

• The world has changed a lot since The Lumineers issued their 2012 debut album, and the "Ho Hey" hitmakers are taking stock on their fifth studio release, Automatic.
  
  Lead singer Wesley Schultz explained in a press release: "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."
  
  In the fast-paced lead single (and album opener), "Same Old Song," Schultz sings from the perspective of a struggling musician who spirals into depression. It's familiar territory for the indie-folk duo, whose early days trying to make the grade in New York City were plagued by obstacles until they made a fortuitous move to Colorado, where their career took off.
• The Lumineers are a Colorado band, but the musician in this song is trying his luck in California. The second verse references the La Brea Tar Pits, which is an active paleontological research site in Los Angeles. Tens of thousands of years of asphalt seepage resulted in a thick, tar-like substance that contains a wealth of ancient plants and animal fossils. Schultz, who feels trapped in his own despair, describes the pits as "black like a starving mouth for the innocent."
  
  Schultz also laments, "You said the boulevard was not that bad," and shares how his van was robbed of its instruments in broad daylight, including his mother's guitar. This is likely a nod to Elton John's "Tiny Dancer," whose LA lady laughs and says, "The boulevard is not that bad" - a reference to Sunset Boulevard, which is a major thoroughfare in Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
• The band recorded the album with New York-based songwriter/producer David Baron at Utopia studio in Woodstock. Inspired by the 2012 Beatles documentary Get Back, they transformed Utopia into their own version of Abbey Road, the iconic London studio where The Beatles famously set up shop in the '60s and '70s, installing both vintage and modern gear. To capture a raw, unrefined energy, Schultz and drummer Jeremiah Fraites performed the songs as a unit in a spacious live room. The entire recording process took less than a month.
• The music video, directed by Anaïs La Rocca (Hundred Waters, Vance Joy), was shot in one take. It features the band performing against a backdrop of home-movie-style images that reflect the emotional lyrics. At one point, Fraites swaps his drumsticks for roses, which was a tricky feat to pull off. "We tried using plastic roses, but they didn't work as well," Fraites recalled on Instagram, "So there was an amazing man on set helping with just about everything that day, and he spent about 20 minutes hot-gluing a bunch of roses onto my wooden drumsticks to make the perfect shot."