It’s all but disappeared as a concept, that difficult third album thing. In the olden days this curse was all about being unable to sum up any creativity or an unwinding of momentum, but now even getting that far is the musical equivalent of running ten marathons back to back.
The Bitter Cup isn’t Hotel Lux’s third album, it’s their second, which obviously negates pretty much the opening paragraph’s whole argument, except for the fact that it feels like it was hard work. The quintet – all natives of Hampshire who moved to London individually over time – earned critical acclaim for their 2023 debut Hands Across The Creek, but it’s follow up is both self funded and produced, and was recorded over the space of just four days.
Singer and songwriter Lewis Duffin to his credit isn’t afraid of approaching the difficult stuff on a record which sometimes feels jumbled and in a daze. In this fog opener Encore peeks at intra generational disconnection and The Fear adopts the tone of an addict’s inner monologue. Respite comes with the ragged shanty of closer Nod (To The Retrospect) but the rusty apex is the biographical Song For John Healy, an arch post MacGowan sketch that’s almost worth the other jolts. Hotel Lux it seems don’t much care which number album The Bitter Cup is, they’ll drink a toast to it’s body anyway.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 