The Hotelier - Goodness (May 27, 2016) Album • Page 126

"Piano Player" is the best song on here

 

Now that's a hot take

But hey you're entitled to your opinions/tastes and I respect that

 

We can all probably agree on this: the fact that people's favorite / least favorite track is so diverse between all of us says something of the stature of this album. Like, I think I've seen every single song posted as someone's "favorite from the album" at least once or twice.

 

True true true

 

That last portion of Sun is maybe my favorite lyrical moment

 

That, the 3rd verse of "Piano Player", or the end of "End Of Reel".

Or the entirety of "Two Deliverances"

 

Opening Mail lyrics are probably my favorite right now

 

End of reel may have the best lyrics actually not sure though

 

End of Reel is probably my favorite song overall

 

You are a wise being

 

I'm still at the point where I can't listen to anything else, wonder if that will change when thrice comes out. They are a top 5 band for me.

 

I will definitely post more here! Can't believe I haven't joined seeing as I've anticipated this album a lot.

I want to talk about something that you guys have missed as far as I can tell, and it's the implied cyclicality in the album. You guys have already mentioned the extensive use of opposites, but I believe that it's important to talk about the cyclicality that derives from those opposites. There is barely a topic - if there even is one - in this album that's not considered in regards to its opposite, and I think that this is a major part of Christian's Daoistic approach. He wants us to see that by considering something w/r/t to its opposite (e.g., a definition for any opposite X is opposite Y - they are correlated) we are not surrounded by opposites but by cycles, with many different stages and phases.
The sun and the moon - one of the major clashes referred to in the album - are not two stages in and as of themselves, but a part of the cyclicality of the day, which I believe is metonymical for life and its progression. In "Sun", Christian speaks of the sun as a "twin-firing machine". This in itself is hard to grasp, but needs to be related to its completing line in closer "End of Reel". In "End of Reel", Christian sings "In the night, we will celebrate cyclical spin, as we ritually send off the fire at both ends". The fire - the sun itself - is sent off towards day, which is one end, but also towards night, another end, in another place. We live surrounded by cycles, not just opposites. The world is not binary but ever-changing and ever-flowing.

Another couple of lines that seem mysterious unless taken in context are a line from the opener and a line from the closer. In the opening track, Christian says "This place speaks. It says many things of Nothing. [...] Only repeats what you say [...] An echo off the far wall." On "End of Reel", Christian sings, "The resonant calm comes hard and hums off the walls uncarved". I believe that what is referenced in the final line, which leads to the brimming of Christian's loved one, is the Daoistic Nothing Christian is trying to come to terms with.
The Reddit AMA has Christian saying that the Daostic Nothing is, in a way, a mystery that he can't solve, but he is able to connect with it and live it. I think that this Nothing is accepting the random flow of the world, and not giving into your memories and nostalgia, and the sadness that comes with the failure to accepting the fleeting feeling of everything. He says of a meaningful relationship's ending that he accepted it as it was a part of "this natural cycle", and that felt okay. Accepting the Nothing that comes with the Dao is letting one's feelings of nostalgia and relation to the past be replaced in the mental cup by that same Nothing, and letting them brim until they spill over. It's a tough feeling - one doesn't know how to deal with that painful period in which you know that you are letting your memories go, but have not forgotten them completely yet - but it's one he has to feel.

 

incredible insight! thanks for sharing this

 

Don't know what my "least favorite" is...excluding the short tracks, it's maybe "Settle the Scar," don't hate me guys. I hadn't heard that song before this record so my experience with it is different. As of now my favorite song is still "Piano Player," but I think that's because I've heard it so many more times than the rest of the record. "Soft Animal," which I didn't listen to before release is up there though. Also agree that "Sun" could be shorter and still accomplish what it does.

 

Don't stop being you, ever.

Great insight.

 

Man, those are lyrics are just something else.

 

I can't fathom not loving 'Sun'. My favorite on the record, probably.

 

Thank you for saying this. Very accurate. I don't get all the talk about how it's such a light, happy album. I don't think that at all. Maybe compared to Home but I don't know how you get much darker than that.

 

It was my least favorite but it grew on me a lot. Fear of Good is my least favorite now.

 

Probably my favorite parts and favorite song on the album. But you gotta add that last line too... "Now I'm swimming through the nothingness and the absolute, but I couldn't ask this of you."
So. Good.

 

Does anyone else see a story in this album? I've been trying to decipher it all, and it seems like Goodness is a metaphor for falling in love, and the whole album follows the story of two characters falling in love. They find that the only way to get the reciprocation of love is to share their "demons" (for lack of a better word) and to each find themselves in a vulnerable spot. They both enter Goodness at the beginning feeling unsure of each other, but find through vulnerability that they can find a whole new love that was already there.
Still a rough idea but it's been coming together.

 

Yeah, this has been on pretty constant rotation for me. Don't see that changing anytime soon.

 

I don't see this album as about a relationship so much as the death and rebirth of a person, specifically a grandmother, but that's just me projecting a lot of life experiences on some of the lyrics. Plus "grandmother" being used in the title of a song.

 

Here's what I'm thinking: Two Deliverances is about sharing secrets with each other, in my opinion. Right after that song comes Settle The Scar, which has a new bridge that specifically states someone having access to memories after the narrator shares the memory of a past relationship. That leads to Opening Mail, which is the same person recalling the memory of their grandmother. After sharing that memory, they come to terms with the fact that the grandmother died in Soft Animal and get closure with the doe. This person is able to come to terms with the death because of talking to the person they're falling in love with. Then in Sun this person shares their own painful memories, and this exchange brings us to the conclusion of You In This Light through End Of Reel.

Again, I could be totally off, but the way the lyrics flow through make me think this is a story. Plus the album trailer and Goodness Pt. 1; I feel like it sets the scene for these two people to enter Goodness. I also think the grandmother and child in Piano Player represent the difficult memories the two people are dealing with, but when they run into them they don't want to confront it with the other person there because it's uncomfortable.

 

I wish this record had drum work that was a little more impressive/dynamic, but I realize this album doesn't quite call for that the way that Home did. Definitely doesn't detract from the record in any way, but it's a relatively clear step onto the back burner when in relation to LP2.

Also, what's the significance of the trailing-off snare hits on Goodness/End of Reel? I must've missed that discussion and am also very confused as to why some people seem to be so annoyed with them.