Hospitality’s eponymous debut album, short in length but strong in substance, presents listeners with a fun, refreshing and accessible listening experience. Singer Amber Papini and her bandmates have clearly focused on establishing a consistent sound strengthened by meaningful lyrics, creating a pleasant cohesion to
Hospitality. The album thereby leaves listeners with a taste of their potential as a new band, while also demonstrating their ability to write and record a quality first full-length release.
Hospitality offers a fresh take on a sound common among indie-pop/rock bands over the past several years. While the album adopts a stripped-back style built around a single vocalist, one guitar and drums, producer Shane Stoneback uses vocal and instrumental fills to polish the album in a way that prevents it from falling into the shadow of similar bands like Vampire Weekend-- his biggest success to date. Thus, though the sound of Hospitality’s freshman release lacks some originality, musical embellishments using “period keyboards with horns, synthesizers and treated guitars,” alongside the accent-tinged voice of singer Amber Papini give the album layers and texture that make it appealing to the average listener. Single “Friends of Friends” prevalently features a saxophone riff that adds dynamic to the song, while “Sleepover” is pulled together during the chorus by Papini’s unearthly backup vocals.
Additionally,
Hospitality stands as a surprisingly consistent album across its (short) thirty-four minutes, as each of its ten tracks embodies quality song writing. Though the band embraces a single sound throughout their Merge debut, each song possesses its own musical identity and lyrical depth that provides
Hospitality with a greater sense of completeness as an album. “Julie,” for example, dramatically differs from up-tempo singles “Friends of Friends” and “Betty Wang,” and is characterized by a slow, steady tempo and gorgeous flowing lines about Papini’s great-grandfather. “Argonauts,” arguably the album’s best song, offers straightforward but thought provoking lyrics like “Lock the key and throw the door away / Something told me I should leave right away,” and a long, compelling string-based instrumental outro. Every song on
Hospitality claims individuality while cohering to the band’s defined style and ultimately contributing to a cohesive first effort.
The album’s final track, “All Day Today,” provides listeners with the greatest look into Hospitality’s potential as a band, and essentially sums up the remainder of the group’s first full-length album. Though the song lacks an innovative sound, it showcases a young band with the ability to write fun, accessible and quality music consistent in style and substance. Given time to develop and grow, Hospitality will undoubtedly become a force within the indie-pop/rock realm.
