The Joy Hotel – Ceremony album review: The Skinny

Vocalist Emme Woods welcomes the listener to the sound of The Joy Hotel with a captivating, soulful and adequately raspy performance on opening track I Decline – an immediate standout which employs captivating slowed down segments, offering a few deep breaths before the journey of this incredible debut continues.

Each song flows seamlessly into the next and builds on the innovation of its predecessor. Lead single Jeremiah is a swelling forewarning of a coming rapture both lyrically and musically, where the Glasgow septet prove themselves masters of suspense, of tension and release, and of creating a damn good soundscape. This album is retro to the bone, taking a leaf out of the books of Phil Spector and Paul McCartney to provide each of its outstanding tracks with that crisp, timeless sheen.

Having recorded the album at the birthplace of Bohemian Rhapsody – Rockfield Studios in Wales – the group naturally invoke the spirit of Queen on tracks like While You’re Young and on the two-part theatrical epic Twenty Three (A Comedy). The closing lament, Small Mercy, becomes an explosive curtain call as vocalist Luke Boyce joins Woods on the final beckoning line, ‘Come find me, I’m ready to be found’, and as the swathe of unending distortion cuts abruptly, you’re almost spellbound to start the whole thing again. 

Listen to: Jeremiah, Rapid Eye Movement, While You’re Young