Hotel of the Laughing Tree’s story is one for the ages. The band forms from a group of friends, goes on to win a competition while in college, has a brief stint with a parasitic record label, undergoes several lineup changes, sees members move away, and ultimately goes dark. Then, after a few years, the band re-emerges with a simplified lineup, a change in sound, and an album completely crafted through remote means.
And then they released a follow up that’s arguably one of their best records to date. Ladies and gentlemen, A Mountain Fastness is this record. Faraway Friends was a strong showcase of the band’s latest influences (which, to be fair, could also be heard on their Famous People Music compilations). Hotel traded in their post-hardcore tint for a new coat of 70s and 80s vintage flavors. AJ Estrada’s voice has always felt a bit vintage in one manner, and seeing him own this was incredible. But it wouldn’t be fair to say that the record was a regurgitation of oldies; the group’s song structure and lyrical approach were still in tact, and the latter half of the album even saw some of the band’s most experimental songs to date.
Maybe, in retrospect, Faraway Friends was too far of a jump. Maybe its two disparate halves, while strong individually, gave the album a bit of dissociative identity disorder. Perhaps it was a matter of stretching their limbs again after some time. Maybe it was the lack of real drums that were so consequential to the energy of their earlier discography.
AMF feels like an effort in recalibration. It neither pushes ahead nor pulls back too powerfully. Original drummer Neil Scalesse is back. Songs shelved for years finally see a proper release. There are gang vocals. There are raging rock numbers. The retro vibe still surfaces, but the execution seems more consistent this time around. This is an exercise in barter between the old and the new, and these four gentlemen have struck an incredible deal.
“Amaretto Thundersong” serves as the opening first track and lead single. Its bait-and-switch programmed drum and alt-rock guitar line manages to draw the listener in before kicking in the horn arrangements, punchy bass lines, and AJ Estrada’s captivating voice. Scalesse’s drumming rounds off the rhythmic backbone as a lead motif jumps across instruments with ease. It’s a great reintroduction for longtime fans, but it’s also a great starting point for a new listener.
“Asleep at the Waterwheel” starts off a bit more dark and mysterious, thoroughly highlighting drums and bass. But by the time the chorus comes around, things brighten a bit. Layered vocal shouts both amplify the energy of the record and remind the audience that this is a collaborative effort; one quick look at the credits will show that very few instrumental responsibilities fell on any individual member, and there’s definitely a fair share of supporting vocals as well.
Hotel collides the worlds of surf and folk on “’87 Bambi”. Estrada’s lyrics cryptic but clever, including a line about “making a run for the 401k”. The waltz-like pace and soft backing vocals are offset by a fiery guitar solo, distorted vocal passages, and ornamental auxiliary percussion.
My favorite track of the bunch is probably “Glowing”: falsetto vocals dance over tight drums and a light synth bed before bass comes in full-force. The chorus is a bit more straightforward, but the no-frills approach makes it a very energetic track. And even though the vocal melody is consistent across verses, the instrumental underbelly shapeshifts seamless. The ending build is yet another layer of Hotel’s mastery of dynamics. Estrada quips about slipping out without being noticed, a slight nod to “Irish Goodbye” a few tracks later.
From this point on, the album doesn’t mean. “A Thousand Autumns” couples The Faint-flavored riffs with warped synths. “Irish Goodbye” is this album’s mixing nightmare due to its prominent gang vocal chorus parts. “The Sound of the Future” melds Orville Peck with Bruce Springsteen, showing yet another one of Hotel’s many faces. “Town Full of Losers” serves as a continuation of its similar namesake, though it’s certainly more than just a “part two” and explodes with anthemic force.
At this point, it’s worth calling out a few things about the album’s structure. For the most part, it’s a seamless experience, with tracks leading into interludes or directly into each other. This is especially important to note in the late album as “The Sound of the Future” and “Town Full of Losers” and united together by “Back to a Fireless World”, an instrumental jam that does differentiate itself from the other “spoken word / voiceover” interludes. “(eightfortythree brain grapes)” is one such number, a bit nonsensical in nature, and funnily sits as the only explicit track on the whole album.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the album’s closer, “Blue Horse at Dawn”. It’s another country-adjacent number – at least, as far as the first act goes. Estrada croons over orchestral arrangements to powerful effect until a wall of noise overtakes the simplicity and the string parts turn to hard synths and distorted guitars. Even Estrada’s voice clips into digital chaos, a production element that was debated by the band but ultimately lends toward the feeling of chaos as the organic and synthetic shift back and forth. The mid-track march-like drum fill is accompanied by vampire-movie organ lines. Everything fades out into delay trails, distorted vocals, and one final “tape recording” akin to the interlude tracks. And unlike some other Hotel albums, this track is a bit more reasonable as far as overall length goes. It’s definitely the way to go out.
It’s hard to place AMF directly within the discography ranking, but I can confidently say it’s definitely one of the best Hotel albums to date and certainly features consistent strings of strong tracks back-to-back. It’s a consistent album, where the production, intrigue, and dynamics of each individual track tend to be fairly comparable. There are standout tracks, sure, but there isn’t anything that feels leagues better or worse than any other. The record opens and closes strongly, and there’s plenty to behold between these two points. Whatever the case, it’s clear that Hotel is back in full form and are really onto something here.
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