Hotel Lights

Hotel Lights engages their melodious acoustical Songs into a very enjoyable listening experience.

Here is an album that you need to have if you are looking for an album where you can sit back an relax to, but not album that will put you to sleep. For the most of the album Hotel Lights offers mellow driven acoustical tracks. The acoustics are broken up with a higher pitched and faster paced keyboards, which are closely followed behind for the most part by the drums.

The members of Hotel Lights include Chris Badger on keyboards, Piano, and Guitar, Roger Gupton on Bass Guitar, and Backing Vocals, Darren Jessee on Vocals, Guitar, and Piano and Mark Price on Drums and Handsonic.

The initiating song on Hotel Lights self-titled album from 2004 is “You Come And I Go” . This song really sets the tone for what you will hear throughout most of the album. The vocals just seem to be at the right softness and deepness to make the song work throughout its duration. I like how there is the light sound effect at the start of the song. It is small but beneficial is it seems to help set the tone of the song. I am a fan of the acoustic guitar playing in the song. It is a light picking yet also has a strumming pattern that keeps the flow of the song continuous. The piano also portrays the acoustics very nicely in the song. An added characteristic that I like in this song is the guitar that is being played in the background, it gives the song a “space” type of feel to the song.

“Miles Behind Me” is the third song off of the album. This song I could see have a very high commercial potential. It is a song that you would most likely hear off of a teen drama show. It is the vocals and acoustics which make this song stand straight out on the album. A very nice addition to the song was the keyboards and backing sounds. The keyboards blends perfectly with the acoustics, they are however at a higher pitch but I wouldn’t want to hear it any other way. What I find is really nice about the vocals are how they go into a higher tone but they stay with the same softness as the rest of the song. “Miles Behind Me” is diffidently the single off of the album.

“Marvelous Truth” adds a higher and faster speed Pop sound to the album. This song adds a nice little mix to the album. Just in case you were starting to float away while listening to the album this song makes you sit straight up in your chair. The keyboards is the defining instrument in this track. They speak up for the song loud and clear, in some parts they almost overshadow the lyrics. Even though it is pretty much the same keys that are being played throughout most of the song they still act as a real hook for the song. I enjoy the extra sound of the bean shaker that is being played in the background of the song. The placing of the song is about three quarters of the way through the album, which works out pretty good because if it was at the start of the album it might make you think that this is what you are in store for most of the album.

My favourite song off of the album is the first song “Miles Behind Me” I feel out of all the tracks this song seems to be the most solidest song and one for the band to put their weight behind as their lead single. As I listened to the entire album a few times, I feel this song has also the better vocal arrangements.

You can pick up your copy of Hotel Lights at http://cdbaby.com/cd/hotellights.