With their debut EP - 'Extracts from Black Box & Other Stories', 21 Love Hotel have very firmly established themselves as an incredible imaginative and outstanding duo calling on incredibly skilled support where necessary and delivering the kind of industrialized contemporary pop we've all been demanding for so many years.
And so it is without any doubt whatsoever that I can sensibly predict that 21 Love Hotel will make their first album an absolute must for any equally sensible music buyer who's iPod will undoubtedly be transformed from a 'so-many-gigabyte' mp3 player to an oasis of pure classy style!
Gabriella's wings is the one that makes you realize within seconds that you are listening to something incredibly special. Clemence Leaute's sensually charged vocals are brilliantly performed and produced against a fretted backdrop of slightly introspective guitar notes that quickly become infused with some truly atmospheric FX inserts to emphasize the beautifully rendered lyrical charm. To call this song 'different' within the genre would be an oversimplification... it's innovation and excellence rolled into one folks and it works superbly!
Lonely lady takes 21 Love Hotel to that blue lit basement night club with an enraptured audience engaged with wide eyes and refreshed hearing. There's some lovely casual guitar work complete with tremolo effects to wrap around the New European vocals that enchant and elevate everything you held precious about your ability to seek out high quality music from artists that know a thing or two about inspiration, imagination, and unique compositional life cycles. Lonely lady is a wonderful song from a wonderfully imaginative boy/girl partnership.
Ennui adds elements of depth and atmospherics to a song that has been very cleverly performed and produced to the delight of anyone within hearing distance. I love the simplicity of the recording and the ingenuity of the entire performance. As I don't speak French, I can't say anything about the lyrics other than whatever they are... they are expressed beautifully in Clemence's masterful and sensuous voice.
The ballad of Loreley is where 21 Love Hotel take art from their outstretched oils and acrylics canvas and turn it all into tangible beautiful omni-present sound. There are hints and reflections of PJ Harvey and maybe Anni DeFranco here and there but the sound is very much 21 Love Hotel. Either way, what we have here is a unique approach to writing and composing for an audience that appreciates the bridge between art and sound and everything it comprises when it's in the right hands.
X-Mas Night is perhaps a little more melancholy than it's associates on this CD but for all the right reasons. Again, Clemence flavours her vocals with etchings of virtuosity and a sense of cool, calm, collected, conceptual desire. I'd really go out of my way to see 21 Love Hotel performing on stage. I can imagine it to be quite an enthralling experience not least because Clemence and Fredereric have redefined contemporary artistic industrial pop composition and production and I'd like to see all of that happening right in front of me!
The Park is my favourite track on this magnificent EP. I love the string work and stirring FX inserts as they rise and gather and meander around Clemence's dramatic vocal expressions. There's so much in this seemingly simple arrangement that you feel yourself being absorbed into something essentially black and white that merges into an entire squadron of colour. The Park is set to become a 21 Love hotel anthem.. it's beautiful and it's ours for the listening!
Watch out for the 21 Love Hotel biography track if it's been added to your copy. It is an absolutely brilliant idea the likes of which I have never come across before... genius really!
21 Love Hotel have produced a magnificent start to their musical careers with this remarkable debut EP. I cannot wait for the album and I will go out of my way to see them in performance... what a show!
