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Label: Rock Ridge - Rating:
The thing that is instantly exciting about Painkiller Hotel’s album Black Roses is the name. You like it, don’t you? It’s a heck of an image…where would you ever seen black roses? Maybe a funeral? So…is this album about a funeral? No, not literally anyway.
The thing that is instantly saddening about Painkiller Hotel’s album Black Roses is that it’s their debut, so there isn’t anymore of their music to buy just yet. Totally disappointing.
These guys, four of them in fact, from Illinois, are masters of imagery. Their lyrics, like their album name and like their band name (what is a Painkiller Hotel? Can I book a room for the weekend?) paint such a picture that you cannot help but get sucked into their world. Some is just funny and makes you laugh a little during the otherwise serious music such as “seeing you is intoxicating, yet I’m drinking alone,” in “How Was I Supposed To Know.” Those black roses from the title appear in the song “All I Ever Wanted.” It talks about a “soft-spoken” girl “digging a shallow grave/black roses on the stone” and things being “the end of the beginning.” The details of these lyrics are so effective.
Soft-spoken is so specific and full of intent—the easy choice would have been to call her quiet, but when she is referred to as “soft-spoken” a whole new, delicate connotation is applied.” The grave and black roses are disturbing in a way, but their macabre image brings about the idea of endings and changed, only enforced by the line “the end of the beginning.” This, of course, is a quirked take on the common phrase “the beginning of the end.” This thoughtful reversal of words adds great depth to the song and the idea of transition. “Brightest Flame” plays with the idea that it “seems like the brightest flame always fades so fast.” This idea is reiterated in “So Far Away” when it says “the brightest star is the most difficult to reach.” These images of the brightest things, the very best things allow the listener to follow along with the idea that the most intense of feelings are brief and hard to hold on to. It’s an interesting idea, romantic in it’s unfortunate existence, and expressed to very well by the images inspired by the lyrics.
The sound of Painkiller Hotel is great in that it is consistent throughout all the songs, but that each song is still so unique you can tell when the album shifts from one track to the next. Especially cool is the amazingly clear sound of each guitar string being played in “Lead Me On.” It’s like you’re sitting on the microphone. The rhythm is great all the way through and the music supports the vocals in a way that shows them off. The pace can seem slow in parts, but it’s effective. The songs would lose their meaning if sung any faster. Painkiller Hotel seems to have taken on many influences to create their own sound. In “How Was I Supposed To Know” the sound is reminiscent of some ‘90’s music that Ross and Rachel probably danced to in one of the episodes of Friends. Then in “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing” the vocals seem to slip into a blues-esque sound, immediately followed by a Middle Eastern intro in “Becoming Someone Else.” Painkiller Hotel proves that they have talent and depth by playing around with the strength of their sound. Songs like “You Don’t Know What You’re Missing,” “Becoming Someone Else,” and “Changes” have a stronger sound that mixes well with the softer sounds surrounding them.
The vocals are really the jewel of Painkiller Hotel. They are uniquely deep and gritty. The lead vocalist croons more than sings and it gives a whole different feel to this music when you compare it to other indie rock. In “Weakness” there is a whispery quality to the vocals that brings a whole sense of meaning to the song that a guitar or even great lyrics could not bring, no matter how hard they tried.
When writing these reviews I really try to keep my personal opinions out of it and give an unbiased critique of the bands I’m giving. Today, I am putting my personal opinion in. I am putting it in and saying, men of Painkiller Hotel, marry me! Marry me so I can wake up to your awesome sound everyday. No? Is that too crazy? Ok, maybe. Well, how about this: since I just wrote you a great review, how about you write me a great song? That way I can program it into my nifty musical alarm clock and then actually wake up to your awesome sound everyday. How about it?
Like Painkiller Hotel? Check out: Shawn Mullins, Better Than Ezra
