When Massachusetts’ outfit The Hotel Year morphed into The Hotelier with their seminal 2014 release, ‘Home Like Noplace Is There’, it marked a reawakening. Alongside a handful of contemporaries, their full-length brought with it a reinvention of their indie-punk or emo label. The Hotelier were offering experimentation without losing the heart. Perhaps most importantly, they delivered musical sophistication.
Opening with a spoken word poem, ‘Goodness’ pushes those boundaries further. The Hotelier are done with any lasting remnants on their earlier days, with not a screamed vocal in sight. ‘Goodness, Pt. 2’, the record’s first proper track, is as minimalist as it is complex; an immediate recognition of their desire to move forward. The guitars initially jar with the rest of the track, only providing a beautiful musical release near the half way point. It’s a symbolic birth of sound, and one that ultimately feeds into their most natural sounding record to date.
‘Goodness’ blossoms in the ears, referenced in their already-controversial album art. Like its imagery the sound holds itself bare yet is never deliberately confrontational. It’s a celebration of the natural form, in some senses almost spiritual. The opening hushed vocals of ‘Piano Player’ play out like a naturalistic choir. Two tracks reference coordinates leading to remote and wild spots in New Hampshire, the expansive and untamed sound mirroring the physical locations.
Much like the wilderness, ‘Goodness’ evolves without restraint. Song structures feel remarkably free, be it the unexpected middle-section of ‘Sun’ – itself a celebration of the outside –, the skipped beats that round off ‘You in This Light’, or the meticulous drum hits closing out ‘Goodness Pt. 2’ and the album’s final, fittingly titled track, ‘End of Reel’. Even in these experimental moments, ‘Goodness’ doesn’t feel contrived or overtly pretentious.
The Hotelier have stripped themselves back, not in sound but in identity and inspiration. By returning to their own roots they have created a grandiose album that’s never melodramatic. It channels the expansive wilderness and its raw freedom. As earthy as it is sublime, ‘Goodness’ knocks confidently at the door of musical liberation.
BEN TIPPLE