Review Summary: Hotel Books are trying really hard
The first time I heard Hotel Books I hated them. It wasn’t the music I hated, although the midtempo, structureless, twinkly post-hardcore/emo/vaguely post-rock instrumentals didn’t inspire much more than a shrug out of me. It was the lyrics and vocals of frontman Cam Smith that caused my face to contort into a shape that could best be described as a slack-jawed grimace. You see Hotel Books started off as one of those spoken word “kinda” bands, and by “kinda” I mean that’s all they had going for them, which would be fine and well, but Cam Smith’s performance on their first couple of releases was just awful. All of his lyrics come across like lines from a high school journal being read at random. The lyrics are straight up just a series of melodramatic musings about love, depression, woe is me, etc, that are all delivered in the same rapid fire monotone vocal style that becomes grating within seconds. Hotel Books first album
I’m Almost Happy Here, But I Never Feel at Home was universally panned, and many including myself immediately wrote them off forever, but then Hotel Books surprised everyone (or at least the handful of people willing to give them a second chance) and managed to release a decent follow up record with
Run Wild, Young Beauty.
Run Wild, Young Beauty opens with dual guitar tapping riffs that are delightfully delectable, and prove within seconds that Hotel Books have drastically evolved musically. Melody, structure, a flowing rhythm section: all things that were once foreign to Hotel Book are on full display which, makes it hard to believe that
Run Wild, Young Beauty is even by the same band. The emotional core and focus of the group is immediately shifted to the music, which is vital because Cam Smith did not improve as his bandmates did. His lyrics and vocal delivery are just as terrible, but as a positive his performance is now often drowned out by the music. All in all the music on
Run Wild, Young Beauty isn’t anything special, but it’s such a positive leap it’s hard not to feel good for the band while listening to it. But again, the vocals serve as the most unique thing about the band, but also the fatal flaw.
Just a year later Hotel Books released their third album
Run Wild, Stay Alive, and with this album we find a band very much at a crossroads. Calling this album diverse or experimental would be a tad highfalutin, as Hotel Books basically switch off from playing derivative twinkly emo to derivative pop punk to stuff that is disturbingly similar to
Sempiternal era Bring Me The Horizon. It’s a tad disappointing considering how promising the music was on
Run Wild, Young Beauty, but the variety in the songwriting almost makes up for the lack of truly strong music. But again, what really brings the album down is that it’s all tied together by Cam Smith’s tear soaked diary entries. On this record he’s trying a lot harder at least as there’s some screaming, and some honest to god actual singing too. It’s not very good, but hey it’s there, and it helps break up the monotony of the spoken word approach. Less inspired than the last album,
Run Wild, Stay Alive is a sloppy hodgepodge of various core and post-rock influences that is more competent than creative.
The meat of Hotel Books really is the lyrics, and I firmly believe that Cam Smith’s lyrics have to be experienced first hand to truly be understood, so I’m just going to plaster some here with a bit of minor analysis:
"I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THAT I LIED TO YOU, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE WHEN I SAID IT, I THOUGHT I WAS TELLING THE TRUTH. I THOUGHT I WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO CARRY YOU BUT NOW MY MIND IS CLEAR, AND I HOPE YOU HEAR THIS, I LOVE YOU" - I started with this one because I think that no analysis is required.
"I’M NOT WORRIED ABOUT SINGING IN KEY WITH THE CONFRONTATION OF CONFORMITY. I LOVE SOCIAL JUSTICE JUST ENOUGH TO SMOKE IT SOCIALLY" - This one, this one just makes me want to be put in the ground.
"WHEN WAS TRUTH ABOUT PROVING A POINT AND LESS ABOUT PROVING SOMEONE ELSE WRONG?" - His lyrics are a lot more fun when they’re in all caps don’t you think?
"HOPE IS A WINDOW WITH A SMALL BREEZE" - Like what the fuck does this even mean?
"I SAW A BRIGHT FUTURE, YOU SAW RIGHT THROUGH ME. SOMETIMES LOVE IS FINDING DEEP TRUTH FOR A NEW TOMORROW. SOMETIMES LOVE CAN JUST COMPLETELY BE FUELING AN EGO"
Can you imagine dating this guy? I can just picture him getting into an argument with his significant other. “Cam, you told me that you had work this Sunday, but then I remembered Chic fil-A is closed on Sundays. Did you lie to get out of going to my mom’s place this weekend?” “WHEN WAS TRUTH ABOUT PROVING A POINT AND LESS ABOUT PROVING SOMEONE ELSE WRONG?” “Jesus Cam, just answer the question.” “I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE THAT I LIED TO YOU, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE WHEN I SAID IT, I THOUGHT I WAS TELLING THE TRUTH.” “Ughh it’s OK whatever, just tell me you don’t want to go next time.” “I SAW A BRIGHT FUTURE, YOU SAW RIGHT THROUGH ME, BUT I HOPE YOU HEAR THIS, I LOVE YOU.” “Holy *** we’re done get the *** out of my house.”
Once you deconstruct the lyrics as hilarious, it really is hard to hate Hotel Books. They’re trying so damn hard, they’re like a lovable underdog. OK they’re more like a tolerable underdog, but still there’s a modicum of creativity and talent buried in this mess of identity-less sad boy core music, and that’s just enough to keep me invested in the band.
Run Wild, Stay Alive even has a couple catchy choruses sprinkled throughout its run time, so if Cam “Can Do” Smith can get his *** together and learn to write some passable lyrics we might have a quality underrated band on our hands. But until then we’re left with an average band whom I can’t help but encourage every time they flash me their puppy dog eyes.
