Hotel Lux follow up their highly acclaimed 2023 debut album ‘Hands Across the Creek’ with ‘The Bitter Cup’, a song that found them writing in a more collaborative way as they head into their mid-20s in an increasingly tumultuous world. Gentrification, inter-generational divides and battles with mental health are just some of the subjects they tackle…

The album was recorded live in four long days and this raw and natural feel feeds through to the opening ‘Encore’, a song with a bar-room brawl backing that falls somewhere between Babyshambles and The Levellers, although an optimistic tone shines through: ‘There’s still hope… Smiles on faces and the kindness of strangers’. The title track follows and sounds somewhat akin to Tom Waits rambling and stumbling around against a bluesy sound, rallying against those who are ‘full of bravado’ and lack respect.

‘Joy’ combines a ’70s punk-rock sound with Whirlitzer organs and a swirling rhythm section as the band declare: ‘I will find the joy in this town’. There’s an interesting character narrative on the powerful ‘Costermonger’, while ‘Song for John Healy’ pays tribute to a real-life alcoholic chess master who learnt the game while in prison, going through the key moments in his life against an at-times psychedelic yet baroque soundtrack: ‘Fed up with his father and short of a few quid, they put him in the British Army’.

‘Another One Gone’ has a touch of the dirtier side of Arctic Monkeys as the words ‘I don’t know’ are repeated and ‘Evelyn’ has an accordion intro that makes you feel like you are in a tavern with Hotel Lux as they (or their characters) pour their heart out. The record finishes with ‘Nod (to the Retrospect)’, a waltzing ballad that builds and builds to finish in supreme style.

The latest record from Hotel Lux is one you’ll want to check in on.