The music industry has come a long way. Since Napster revolutionized the digital distribution of music, we’ve seen a paradigm shift not just in the way music is sold, but the way we listen to it. It seems were passed the days of wanton lawsuits against unwitting criminals, and it seems that now even the idea of the LP is beginning to wear away against the tide of singles, playlists and EPs. Take Hospitality as an example. With them, we have a group that put out an acclaimed EP in 2008 by themselves. Now, almost four years later, they’ve signed with a label and put new versions of those songs and a few new ones as their first LP. I never got to hear that EP, or even look at its tracklist, but if you had, wouldn’t you find it a little annoying that this band got caught up in the old ways and has made so little progress over all this time?
Honestly, this is neither here nor there, as the reality is this album is the first time I heard of Hospitality. And what I heard, I liked. This is that catchy, indie pop kind of music that I tend to gravitate toward, so I’m not going to have to much to say. The lead singer/songwriter Amber Papini has a voice that reminds me of Karen O or Tracyanne Campbell, but all the critics tell me she sounds weird, so I guess be aware of that? I don’t all the reviews I’ve read are pretty positive, that’s why I listened to this in the first place. I think that Tracyanne Campbell comparison is fair, because Hospitality does remind me Camera Obscura a little bit, kind like if those guys got mixed with Vampire Weekend.
Anyway, it’s still pretty early in the year and while there aren’t really that many exciting movies or video games out yet, there’s actually been a few pretty solid albums that have come out. That’s another cool thing about music, it seems the barrier for entry is lower than a lot of other media. Dozens of great albums come out every month and actually get covered by enthusiast press. You can’t really say that about movies and video games. While I really like this album, what I’m really excited about is the future of Internet distribution.
Favorite Tracks: “Friends of Friends,” “Betty Wang,” “All Day Today”
