Hopsitality’s sophomore LP, Trouble, responds to the care-free tone of their self-titled debut with a world-weary perspective.If Hospitality represented the romance of being young and wandering around New York City with your friends, Trouble is the retreat into loneliness and the realization that you’re out of place.
Darker, slower songs come along with the shift in tone. There is a real effort on Hospitality’s part to make this record feel more substantial than the last. Songs are given more time to breathe and develop. This allows for some truly beautiful moments like the angelic trumpet solo on “Sunship.”
Slower tempos haven’t caused the band to be any less nimble. The most intriguing aspect of Hospitality’s music is their ability to meld so many styles of music without creating a hodgepodge.
“Nightingale” opens with a macho guitar lick and quickly fades into a spacious drum and vocal duo. “Inauguration” and “Rockets and Jets” liberally apply a dreary synth. “It’s Not Serious” is a call back to the more predominate twee stylings of their first record.
While Trouble feels like an improvement upon Hospitality, the band is still on the cusp and not over it. This record is more consistent of all, but there’s no signature tune, like “Friends of Friends” was to the first album.
As a band, Hospitality feels like the first season of a great TV show like The Office or Parks and Recreation. They haven’t hit upon the right combinations of parts yet, but there’s so much to work with it seems inevitable that they will.
Hospitality will play the Cat's Cradle back room February 22 with Air Waves and The Human Eyes. Tickets are $10 in advance.
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