Love can be an interesting thing sometimes. Everyone feels love, whether that be romantically to a partner or platonically to a friend or family member; everyone has something or someone. But, as much as we may sometimes try to reject it, love is hand in hand with loss. Love leads to heartbreak, and it leads to depression, anger, guilt; all of the strongest emotions on some level will stem from love, which will be followed by intense loss. Hotel Books’ songwriter Cam Smith has once again perfectly painted a painful portrait of both love and loss on his newest full-length album, Equivalency II: Everything We Left Out, released November 1st via Invogue Records. This album is 13 tracks long, and features a good mix of both spoken word as well as that classic Hotel Books sound that we all know and love.
The album starts with “Intro,” a spoken track where vocalist Cam Smith explains the story behind Equivalency. He delves into how these tracks are ones that did not make the album, and are a continuation of the story of Sarah and David. He also shares a bit of his personal story through a poem he wrote before Hotel Books existed.
It then follows into the first single, “I Hope I’m Not Wrong.” On this track, it tells a story of the potential consequences of being on the road and losing the things you love by being gone. This message is immediately apparent in the first lyrics of the song: “I’m finally 23, I’ve seen so many countries I thought I’d never get to see, and I understand the blessing I’ve been given by being able to get in front of an audience, and sometimes I wish I could take this back and find a way back to the friendships I had before I started chasing after all of this.”
Two tracks that I loved on the album that both go together are “David to Sarah” and “Sarah to David.” Cam Smith explains in the first track on the album that this whole album follows the story of two characters name Sarah and David and their love story, and these two tracks are letters to each and tell the story of their love and relationship well.
Overall I was incredibly impressed with this album, Hotel Books never disappoints. They are never afraid to get deep and they put so much emotion in their music that I really love.
You can stream the album below.
