Whereas Hospitality‘s first album was a largely breezy and charming affair (due in no small part to Amber Papini’s slightly aristocratic singing voice, with its softened consonants and elongated vowels), Trouble, as its title may suggest, goes to darker places. And while there are occasional echoes of the first album (such as “It’s Not Serious” and the French chanson vibe of the spare closing track “Call Me After”), I think there’s a lot more variety and muscularity here: the strutting beat of “Going Out”; the layered, slightly stilted, wiry “I Miss Your Bones”, which sounds like it walked right out of NYC’s punk scene in ’76; and the haunting, synth-laden, impressionistic, retro new wave of “Last Words” with its surprisingly angular guitar solo ending. If you’re a fan, I’d also highly recommend the non-album single (“The Drift”/”Monkey“) they released between the LPs, since those songs haven’t been reprised elsewhere.

Buy it here.

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Favorite Albums of 2014