Hotel Art - Elevator Music (2024)

Wonderful and charming debut of latest Boo Hewerdine project. When you’ve got the honeyed vocal talents of Boo Hewerdine, it’s a shame to limit oneself to a single project. So since his debut back in 1986 with the much-missed outfit The Bible, Hewerdine has gone on to work with an array of brilliant musicians including Darden Smith, Tori Amos, Eddie Reader, Clive Gregson, Christine Collister, Richard Thompson, Chris Difford, Justin Currie – together with his most recent outfit – State of the Union – with Brooks Williams. Combine this with a fine selection of solo material – to date amassing a highly impressive ten albums – and counting. His gorgeous voice and songwriting talents mark him out as “one of Britain’s most consistently accomplished songwriters” – a description bestowed on his many years back, but equally relevant today.

He’s also always up for a new musical challenge, so back in 2015, Hewerdine was performing in a Croydon pub and a stranger in the form of musician Vlado Nosal introduced himself. Nosal was so impressed with Hewerdine’s music that he asked him to become his mentor – even though Nosal lived in Bratislava. So began a rich and rewarding musical relationship that since then has produced a number of co-written songs – some of which have appeared on Hewerdine’s recent EP’s.

We now have the debut album from the duo – now known as Hotel Art – and what a magical and enchanting album it is. There’s a wide range of styles on this album and we get off to a rocking and edgy start with ‘Raised On Television’ – a superb burst of noisy, yet poised alt americana with some slightly off-kilter vocals over electric guitar, piano tinkling and a really solid drum beat. A glorious and unusual opener.

Next up is the warm and McCartneyesque ‘Death In The Afternoon’ – Hewerdine’s vocals shine over a superb melange of organ, guitar and percussion, with an easygoing shuffle. It’s simply fantastic. ‘High Fashion’ is another gentle tune with organ and occasional burst of trumpet accompanying the class vocals.

There’s a definite Godley/Crème vibe to some of the songs on this album – perfectly demonstrated by the off kilter pop of ‘Sunshine’ – together with some unexpectedly dark lyrics amongst the gorgeousness. ‘Hotel Art’ is a witty and relaxed take on the very particular experience of staying in hotel rooms around the world – critical in tone, but witty and tongue in cheek in execution. Hewerdine’s vocals continue to shine brightly.

Album closer is the title track – a song celebrating the experience of travelling in lifts – and again this is a wistful, easy-going going and thoroughly charming song – something which exudes from the whole album in spades. It also features some lovely guest vocals from Hafdis Huld, of Icelandic electronic band GusGus.

If you’ve ever been taken with Hewerdine’s previous material, you’ll absolutely adore this corker of an album – even though the two musicians have thirty years between them in age and hundreds of miles geographically between them – they gel so well together and we need more material from them soon.