Tuesday November 2, 2021
Melbourne based indie-pop band, The Blue Hotel, has released Let You Down, the follow-up to Silence, the single from earlier this year that established the band and its eclectic contemporary pop style.
The trio of Jenna Roubos (vocal/piano/synths), Nathan Thomas (guitar/vocal/synths), and Benjamin O’Brien (drums/beats/percussion) have once again created a genre-defying hybrid that merges late-night club grooves and subtle melodies to electro flourishes and the more traditional sounds of piano and guitar. After a series of releases, including the band’s debut EP Stand in Gold, The Blue Hotel has worked up its sound, affirming creative ambitions with more singles and the 2019 EP Into the Firelight.
The COVID lockdown, aside from throwing society as we know it into chaos, was also an opportunity for people to take stock. With creatives, it was perhaps an opportunity to reassess their work practice. The Blue Hotel was just one group affected, as they say about the inspiration behind Let You Down, ‘It was written during the second long Melbourne lockdown and was just stream of conscious writing which seems to reflect the temper of the times. I guess a feeling of loss and uncertainty and searching for something more than what is being offered.
On top of that, there is a truth to not wanting to let the ones you love down. It is a song of hope.’ Let You Down track features a myriad of attributes, the subtle melodic focus of which is underpinned by a self-assuredness and attention to sonic detail, with the production utilising keys, synths, guitars and varied rhythmic accompaniments to highlight a low-key yet effective indie-pop work. When asked about creative goals, the band says, ‘We want to leave behind something that is worthwhile. Good art. Something that stimulates and is enjoyable. Sometimes head music and sometimes just letting it go.’
With a slight hint of the 90s flowing in its veins—think Massive Attack meets Everything But The Girl—Let You Down manages to reach a satisfying peak, and does stimulate musically, building as it does with careful layering of parts and attentive programming and perhaps most persuasive of all, Jenna Roubos’s understated yet achingly resonate vocal performance.
