Chet Faker- Hotel SurrenderLabel: Detail BMG Released 9 10 2021 At the top of 2020, after a year of traversing the globe in support of 2019s Run Fast Sleep Naked, Nick Murphy began creating music that simply felt good. Though the singer had retired his billionstreaming Chet Faker project four years prior, the new songs he was working on in his New York City studio had an energy reminiscent of his earlier work. Reviving the project wasnt on my radar at the time, Murphy admits,

which mirrored the feeling of being stuck in the middle of nowhere during lockdowns

By Demons Be Driven

Can You Feel That

Thunder of the Gods - 13:23

Unlike Bowie's previous two albums

and The Way It Really Is

a group trafficking in baroque harmonic pop

'Floodland' is filled with lush production (thanks to Meat Loaf writer/producer Jim Steinman and the New York Choral Society) and lyric imagery that is both scary and glorious

A New Muse

employing identical chord sequences for different songs and having the musicians play unfamiliar instruments

" it's a perfect way to end a near-perfect album

Packards' Vibration