We don’t want to tell them how to do their jobs, but the Worcester-bred outfit might be underselling the product with the title of their third studio album—because Goodness, released late last May (just missing the cutoff to snag last year’s award), is pretty great. When they broke onto the scene with 2014’s darkly introspective Home, Like Noplace Is There, the Hotelier was heralded among a handful of local bands at the forefront of the emo revival. They’ve since shed the shackles of that contentious genre, proving themselves a rock band to be reckoned with. On Goodness frontman Christian Holden is no less lyrically verbose—and the material no less personal— but he is ready to deal with his considerable stock of emotional angst on a higher plane.
The Hotelier
Other Winners
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Album
2014 Winner: Major Arcana by Speedy Ortiz
Northampton-based Sadie Dupuis’ bedroom-project-turned-band has been up to some big things this past year...
Photo Credit: Shawn Brackbill -
Album
2015 Winner: Will Dailey’s National Throat
Will Dailey’s first album since splitting with a major label finds the singer/songwriter at a career high…...
Photo Credit: Paul Janovitz -
Album
2016 Winner: Quilt’s Plaza
You don’t have to remember the Summer of Love to appreciate Plaza, which finds Quilt channeling seriously retro vibes that are somehow as at home on our Summer 2016 Spotify playlist as they’d have been a half century ago...
Photo credit: Daniel Dorsa -
