The Emo Revival was big for me. Here we had a slew of bands making these big, sweeping songs, putting it all out there, and surpassing all of their heroes on the way up. Well, at least that’s what the Hotelier did with Home, Like Noplace is There. What makes this album so great is that it works an insane alchemy to sustains as perpetually fraught emotional state without ever letting up with enough variance to never wear you out. I listened to this album all through the summer of 2014 running on the poorly maintained walking path that circled our townhome community. I was not built for running, and after that summer I messed up my hamstring so bad I still have to stretch it for 5 minutes every morning, but running (read: jogging, poorly) to The Hotelier is one of my favorite memories from our time there trying to figure out what we were going to do. Their follow-up--2016’s Goodness--is a damn fine record, but I always felt like it was missing the extra gear that made Home, Like Noplace is There so special. This is one of those rare albums that demands to be listened to front-to-back each time out. Most of the songs can stand just fine on their own (“The Scope and All this Rebuilding,” “Your Deep Rest,” and “Housebroken” were all contenders on my favorite songs of the decade list), but they work so much better when listened to all together.
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