The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014)

On their 2014 sophomore album Home, Like Noplace Is There, Massachusetts indie rock outfit the Hotelier processed pain, death, guilt, emotional abuse, and a wealth of other heavy feelings, all filtered through impassioned, white-knuckled performances and disarmingly catchy guitar-driven pop. The intense subject matter and Christian Holden's sometimes strained and yelpy vocals pushed the band into the emo revival category for some listeners, though the album's arrangement is rich with understated touches like soft, buried organ tones, shouty group vocals, and quick-turning song structures that stray from typical by-the-numbers emo. Home, Like Noplace Is There doesn't defy categorization as much as it's too busy charging ahead to pay much attention to genre. The lightheaded and hyper-wordy "An Introduction to the Album" starts things off with the strength of four or five anthems happening at once, and builds continually upwards until it abruptly stops and the dissonant banging of "The Scope of All of This Rebuilding" takes the wheel. This quickly transitions to the jittery folk-punk shuffle of "In Framing" and then to the stunning depiction of conflicted feelings at a friend's funeral on album centerpiece "Your Deep Rest," a song that's equally harrowing and enveloping. Throughout the album, the songwriting and lyricism are both vivid, if often tormented, but the Hotelier never slows down long enough to wallow. Instead, the moments of quiet reflection are quickly upset by anguished bangers like "Life in Drag." The album is a beautiful blur of raw feelings and stark observations, supported by well-thought-out hooks and musicianship so sturdy that it sometimes feels almost at odds with the quivering subject matter. The way the band balances chaos and control adds to the urgency of Home, Like Noplace Is There, and makes the songs feel like terrifying, brutal, and captivating little worlds that need to be revisited multiple times to be fully understood.~ Review by Fred Thomas