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There are bands who simply satisfy your expectations for music, and then there are bands who take your expectations and blow them entirely out of the water.
The Hotelier is one of the few bands who does just that. Following the 2014 release of their sophomore album “Home, Like Noplace Is There,” the band was met with nothing but positive reviews and quickly became a household name in the emo/punk music scene. The band validated themselves in the scene as one of the most intense, creative bands to-date with “Home,” so it’s no surprise that their third album, “Goodness,” featured at the top of many “Most Anticipated Albums of 2016” lists.
This might not be true for some die-hard fans of their sophomore album, though, since “Goodness” is conceptually the polar opposite of “Home.” “Home” was an album packed with subjects like internal struggle, death, self-harm and abuse, making it a very personal and dark record for frontman/lyricist Christian Holden. “Goodness” is everything that “Home” is not, and that makes it just as beautiful as it is refreshing. Holden has made it clear on multiple occasions that “Goodness” is a “love record,” and it is just that while simultaneously being so much more.
The album explores many different forms of love, specifically love for nature, travel, life, beauty and people. “Goodness” centers around Holden’s maturation in learning how to love more in life, and most importantly finding out what love truly means to him. The album itself grows from start to finish, just as Holden himself does. Track three, “Piano Player” concludes with booming drums and droning guitars as he repeats “No, I don’t know if I know love no more,” thus beginning the journey of understanding love, appreciating it and learning how to accept it.
Later on, closer to the end of the record, on “You In This Life,” which is considered the thesis statement of “Goodness,” Holden drones on in the background “Coming around again / making some space to mend / gaining the strength to stand / feeling the love again.”
The beauty of “Goodness” isn’t just in the lyrics themselves. The music is far more refreshing than most albums released in the past decade, even when compared to the band’s sophomore album. For this release, The Hotelier found a way to fill every song with heart and make it breathtaking from start to finish. For example, the record begins with a spoken-word poem then quickly slides into loud and resonant “Goodness Pt. 2.” From there, the album picks up speed, only occasionally slowing down during the few interludes here and there, which consist of acoustic instrumentals and piano ballads.
Words can’t express how magnificent Goodness truly is. You can only experience its grandeur for yourself. There will be moments where chills rock your spine during the awe-inspiring “Opening Letters For My Grandmother” and moments where your breathing speeds up uncontrollably during the fierce, sporadic bridge on “Settle The Scar,” and if you don’t find yourself in tears by the end of remarkable closer “End of Reel,” then I suggest going back through and listening to it a little more closely.
The Hotelier has uncontested talent, and Goodness is the perfect example of that talent. I have no doubt that by the end of 2016, “Goodness” will be everyone’s album of the year.
