Review Summary: Empress Hotel shows glimpses of something spectacular, but its inconsistency keeps it anchored in mediocrity.
Hailing from New Orleans, Empress Hotel is a band that has been making music for a few years now. Releasing individual songs in the underground indie-pop scene proved to be underselling their potential, however; so they have recently made a point of compiling some of their hits and releasing them in the form of a self-titled debut EP. At just five songs, the album may not show us everything we need to know. But if it is any indication of what we can expect from the band henceforth, you might want to pass this by on your quest to find the next big surge in pop music.
Empress Hotel certainly can’t be faulted for a lack of creativity. Its ambitions are in the right place, looking to achieve a dense indie-pop atmosphere with “two hooks per minute.” However, it fails to draw from a wide enough variety of sources to make that happen. Reverb, echoes, and humming vocals in the background define the “ambiance” of every track – and when it ventures outside of that safe zone, it falters completely. For example, the chiming synthesizers in the opener ‘Bells Ring’ sound like a cheap ring tone for an antique cell phone. Instead of sounding endearing or quaint, it is distracting (and by the end of the song, just plain annoying). There is also a noticeable
absence of memorable hooks throughout the EP (especially the first three songs), which stands in stark contrast to the stated objective of the band. The songwriting puts a great deal of stock in the choruses, which are hit-or-miss, and then the verses are mostly forgettable and drowned out by the aforementioned sub-par atmospheres. The combination of these shortcomings gives
Empress Hotel the sound of an album that wants to be something much greater than it actually is.
To their credit, though, the band shows signs of life that might keep listeners from completely dismissing them. The EP improves dramatically over its brief course, with the final two tracks ‘Search Lights’ and ‘Here Comes the New Challenger’ marking
Empress Hotel’s clear highlights. While the former may only have the intrigue of a Coldplay b-side, it illustrates one of the only times that the band achieves its desired atmospheric effect. A combination of spot-on falsetto vocals from Micah McKee and intermittent electric guitar riffs ties the otherwise basic instrumental components together, making the entire song feel more purposeful. The latter, ‘Here Comes the New Challenger’, begins with ice-tinged piano notes and erupts into a frenzied chorus that finally delivers on Empress Hotel’s promise to create brilliant melodies. The worthwhile moments on
Empress Hotel arrive behind schedule, but in this case it is better that they show up late (creating an EP with moments of splendor) as opposed to never (creating an EP with nothing going for it whatsoever).
Empress Hotel is a debut that aims for the stars. The only problem is that it doesn’t have the launch power to get there every single time. It is basically the definition of hit or miss, with a dramatic disparity in both catchiness and overall quality of musicianship between the first and second half. This album is average not because it is uniformly mediocre, but rather because it is sometimes awe-inspiring and other times just plain awful. This is a band to keep a half an eye on, but until they find a way to rein in their ambitions with their actual strengths, they will continue to underachieve.
