Sleep On the Floor By The Lumineers
The lyrics of sleep on the floor are a story told of two lovers. The boyfriend trying to convince his girl to come with him and run away from the place they are. The story starts slightly in a somber setting due to the piano lead into the dynamics but as soon as Wesley Schultz starts it has a positive vibe. He tells her to pack a toothbrush her favorite blouse and to take all of her savings out. From this line, we can assume they don’t have much because only a toothbrush and a blouse is not a whole lot for things to leave town with. Another possibility for such a small list of items would be if they didn’t have permission and were leaving town in a hurry. This actually kinda makes sense from the line “cause if we don’t leave this town we might never make it out” this is almost an urging like they just had an opportunity to leave and he is warning if they don’t take it they may never get out of there.
The next set of ideas he portrays to her is even if they leave and nothing good happens they will at least have lived to the fullest. “And if the subways flood and bridges break Will you lay yourself down and dig your grave Or will you rail against your dying day” In other words, he is saying if the worst happens will you give up or will live as you are going to die tomorrow. There is a ton more that is said throughout the rest of the lyrics that would take other songs in the album to unpack there meaning but the main theme is even if there is a storm or bad things ahead chase your dreams and live with a sense of adventure.
The dynamics of the song starts with a slow piano that is really faint this, in fact, is actually a different song by the band as a subtle intro. The real start to the song starts strong and bold with the main beat with drums that carries throughout the majority with the same style. Halfway the whole beat changes and it picks up drastically. The thing that I am noticing for my personal preference for music that I see popping up over and over is in the dynamic category is a slow start that picks up then drops to nearly nothing and then will spike rapidly. Another thing that makes this song great is the smaller spikes and drops of dynamics from the piano. The more and more I listen to music by the Head and the Heart and Lumineers the more I realize that the subtle changes in dynamics like the ones you can barely hear are what makes music for me.
Rhythm
The rhythm of Sleep on the Floor has a driving force that adds to the story and makes the listener want to dance. The Rhythm of the song goes along with the lyrics just as the beginning with “grab yourself a toothbrush dear” starts slow but also fills the listener with warmth due to the melody hitting the emphasized parts right as he says words like dear showing his affection for her. The rhythm also emphasizes the lyrics such as the line “baby come on” has an elongation to the normal rhythm as if there is an actual waiting for her response.
Range
The range of the lead singer Wesley Schultz starts in a soothing mid-low range with the lyric “Pack yourself a toothbrush dear Pack yourself a favorite blouse” Throughout the song, he keeps about the same place for the range until he really picks it for the lyric “And if the subways flood and bridges break” to a really high note that I can only hope to one day at my very best to hit. The fluctuation of low to high range continues throughout the song which draws attention to the important parts that the singer cares about. Such as when he sings about if the subways flood and bridges break he emphasizes the next part through the raising of the range for or will you rail against the dying day.
Melody
The melody, or more specifically, tune, of this song lends itself generously to the storytelling goals of the singers/songwriters. In each line, there is a certain part of the sentence that is stressed through the tune. For example: in the first line “Pack yourself a toothbrush dear” the tune emphasizes by straining the tune out on “dear” and turns it into “deeear”. This stress in the melody continues throughout the song underscores that the song is written to the woman that the singer is trying to convince to run away with him.
Music video
I had heard sleep on the floor many times before I had ever watched the music video. The first time I watched it a friend came over and he told me how the Lumineers songs were connected. I tried to think of how the songs he was telling me about told a story but I didn’t catch it. So we sat down and watched sleep on the floor the first song of the four-song story. I really liked the song before but the music video but once I watched it I had a whole new respect for the Lumineers as a band. The video tells the story of a young girl who is mourning the loss of someone she loves when her boyfriend asks her to leave with him. He promptly leaves whispering “if you dont leave now we might never make it out.” with tears in her eyes she looks so torn on what to do then something strange happens on time 0:45 on the video she “splits” one of her running after her lover and the other staying. The rest of the story follows the choice of going with her boyfriend on the adventure of a lifetime. Living as nomades with homes that don’t have addresses in their small car. Not caring where they were or how much money they had as long as they were together. At the climax of the song, you see they actually are at a small home concert which crazily enough is the Lumineers playing sleep on the floor. On the lyric that says “Decide on me, yea decide on us” they get married in the yard of the house that the band was performing and actually has the Lumineers with them in the audience. In the last few seconds, they dance alone in a room and lay down and actually sleep on the floor hence the name of the song. But when awaking the video brings you back to the house that the girl was morning the loss of someone originally sadly this was all a dream.
But don’t stop here the story goes on and if you listen to the lyrics and watched the videos that follow this one you may discover how she feels about her choice who was the person she mourned the loss of as well as if she ever truly got married. If you are interested in the whole story watch them in order of Sleep on the Floor, Angela, Cleopatra, and My Eyes. If you want the story in one video there is the completed one of actually six songs called the Ballad of Cleopatra. Alot of realy cool things that the band did to make this story unique so if you do watch it pay attention to the small details.
Here are two links to people reviewing the song that I enjoyed. They annalize the song lyrically as well as dive into at what the video means.
A blog review https://www.popsongprofessor.com/blog/2016/04/19/sleep-on-the-floor-the-lumineers
Music Plus Curtis 