Review Summary: "I think in the end, I'm fine with who I am, and I've forgiven who I've been."
There's always something sobering about a band's last planned album.
It gives the listener a chance to reflect on the fluid nature of music, and proves transparent the disconnect between the consumer and the people who create the music. They're not above the tides of time, they're not making very much money, and they're aging just as fast as we are. When a band announces a final album, it generally means they're ready to move on, though putting whatever they have left into one last go around.
Hightide Hotel have done just this. Naturally is the final piece of music this band claims they will ever make, and what a way to go out. The band has been largely overlooked in the past few years, despite being one of the most honest and emotion bands to ever hit the scene. With a crammed and speedy vocal delivery, the band collectively has shoved just about every ache and pain they've ever felt into their entire discography. From the self deprecating heartache on their numerous EP's and splits, to the love letters of their first LP Nothing Was Missing, Except Me, anyone can find a particular lyric that sinks deep into them.
Naturally does something different, though. It doesn't continue the sinking feeling produced by this band on just about any release they've done, it counters it. It's the complete cycle of a method of channeling bad thoughts into something productive, characterized best on the first song:
"So I catalog each moment and place them within a timeline composed of thoughts, regrets and stories that I keep stored within my mind and I know they may not mean much within the scope and scale of life, although for now they're all I have and dammit they're all mine"
This admission to the listener is both an apology and an explanation for the band's history. Sure, it was dramatic at times, and yeah, maybe they've written some juvenile observations, but it's an extension of the only thing any of us can call our own - our mind. And while to some people this may just be a generic emo band, to Hightide Hotel it's a grand release of every single thing that has ever ailed them. Can you really place a blame?
Musically, they've crossed the finish line at full speed, offering the best production and greatest flow song to song they've ever had. Fast paced guitars and drums, chimes, violins, pianos and a sax all work together perfectly. Messy time signatures on songs like "Hello Cruel World" and "Vertigo Chamber" show the band's mathy influence (though calling this album math rock would be a huge stretch). Gone are the rough, slightly out-of-tune guitars, traded in favor for a perfectly mixed hurricane of clean instrumentation. Though their twinkly influence may be toned down, it certainly doesn't feel like a missing piece.
The cohesion of the album is what ties everything together, however. Where most of this album is an admission of the mental flaws that created their past music, the final song closes the chapter, seeing the band come to terms with life. The most pivotal moment on Naturally comes as the second to last line on the album, a reference to the similar line on the very first song:
"So I experience each moment as they occur within real-time and let them slowly slip away rather than weighing down my mind with all the things that don't mean much within the scope and scale of life. Instead I simply let them pass and dammit, that feels fine. And for the first time in quite a while I think I'll be alright."
And with those words, it's over. The sun is peaking through the clouds, the band is leaving the stage, and there are content smiles all around.
Hightide Hotel owe it to themselves to be happy, and it seems the perfect ending to an incredible band to find the reason they made music in the first place.
This isn't all to say that someone not invested in the band couldn't fully enjoy this album, there certainly is more than enough here to enjoy for everyone. While this is the perfect way to end their band and history, it's also their best album by far. The lyricism is as top notch and personal as ever, and the instrumentation is as varied as they've ever done. While many people may right these guys off as another generic "emo revival" band, with just a short look beneath the surface one will realize that's as far from the truth as possible. While other bands may focus on mimicking sounds of more successful and better bands, with lyricism that covers the simple topics in simple ways, Hightide Hotel breaks away from that. With speedy and clever lines, always energetic vocals, and rarely slowing down without meaning, this band breaks away from the cliches of the genre while staying within the confines of what emo music is. The way simple situations are broken down through all their releases, from sitting on a shuttle, to driving around in your ex's hometown, to a special someone moving into an apartment oh-so-close to yours, the ways day-to-day life are put into such beautifully eloquent terms speaks volumes for poetic ability.
This band has created something truly special here, something that not only provides closure to their story but also kicks enough ass to be remembered for a very, very long time - at least to me.
It's a special thing that only comes along once in a very long time.
