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Hospitality | Hospitality

Merge (2012)
By RYAN REED  |  January 24, 2012
3.0 3.0 Stars

Hospitality

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a Brooklyn indie-pop trio who write songs about Brooklyn, sung by a front-girl with a mousey voice, punched up with artsy arrangements and dreamy texture. On their homonymous debut, Hospitality sound like 800 different trendy bands at once (from Twin Sister to Tennis to TV on the Radio), so if it's pure originality you're after, you've come to the wrong department. But regardless of their ability to stand out in a crowd, they write tunes sharper than a thumbtack, with words that ramble around in fascinating stream-of-consciousness webs. On bouncy lead single "Friends of Friends," a lonely, disassociated Amber Papini wanders (with "a cheap dress on and a wrinkled sleeve") through the cold, uninviting streets of New York City. But the track itself buzzes with joy — Brian Betancourt's buoyant bass, the spot-on thump-swing of Nathan Michel's drum kit, synths fluttering through the stereo spectrum, bold brass chiming in on the chorus. That contrast defines this tuneful pop vacation: even when Papini feels distraught over not choosing "The Right Profession," she expresses her frustration through an endless maze of gooey melody, her band offering consolation through a sugar-rush stomp and frizzed-out guitar solo.
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ARTICLES BY RYAN REED
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  •   HOSPITALITY | HOSPITALITY  |  January 24, 2012
    On their homonymous debut, Hospitality sound like 800 different trendy bands at once (from Twin Sister to Tennis to TV on the Radio), so if it's pure originality you're after, you've come to the wrong department.
  •   CHAIRLIFT | SOMETHING  |  January 17, 2012
    "You lost your focus, but I got a plan for it," sings Caroline Polachek in a crystal-clear chirp on "Amanaemonesia," hovering over a dark, winding bassline and iceberg synths.
  •   CARDINAL | HYMNS  |  January 10, 2012
    After a nearly two-decade silence, chamber-pop duo Cardinal emerge from their near-mythic hibernation with the sleepy-eyed, Beatles-underwater gem "Northern Soul," which crawls out of the speakers as if to say, "Yeah, we've been gone since 1994 — but really, don't mind us!"
  •   BACK WITH BOZMO, MOORE TAKES OFF HIS THINKERS CAP  |  December 14, 2011
    Bo Moore is "a little Thinker-ed out."  
  •   KORN | THE PATH TO TOTALITY  |  December 14, 2011
    Korn claim to embrace "dubstep" on the surprisingly un-terrible The Path of Totality, but their electronic makeover is skin-deep.

 See all articles by: RYAN REED

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