Yellow Days – Hotel Heaven: Album Review

By John Barlass on 8th April 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Dystopian scenes as Yellow Days channels Lennon, Sly and others to tell the unsettling story of a mythical hotel on his 3^rd album.

Release Date: 5^th April 2024

Label: Self Release

Formats: Vinyl, Vinyl + CD bundle

Yellow Days is the alter-ego of UK singer-songwriter and soul/P-Funk pioneer George van den Broek. He’s been around for quite a while – he released his first EP, Harmless Melodies, back in 2016, whilst still a teenager; Hotel Heaven is his third full-length album offering and it’s his first since 2020’s A Day In A Yellow Beat. If you haven’t yet had the good fortune to hear what he’s capable of, you’ve been missing something unique and very, very special.

Yellow Days cites Ray Charles and Thundercat amongst his influences and, whilst such musicians may have been around when the blue touch paper was lit to launch his eclectic blend of psychedelic indie-pop, P-Funk and lush, rich soul, they’re largely hidden in the space-bound sounds that are now his stock-in-trade. And those sounds have already attracted more than their fair share of high-profile admirers from amongst the ranks of fellow-mavericks such as Tyler, The Creator and even Tom Waits.

With Hotel Heaven, Yellow Days combines the lo-fi aesthetic of Tame Impala with the elastic funk of There’s A Riot Goin’ On-era Sly Stone and channels the anguished primal scream vocals of John Lennon to tell the album’s dystopian stories – and he plays every instrument and programmes all the drums into the bargain.

You’ve probably gathered by now – Hotel Heaven is a ‘concept’ album, but, before you groan and reach for the aspirins, let me assure you; it’s a ‘concept’ album like no other. The music may be grounded in the deep soul grooves and anguish-purging therapy sessions of 1971, but the sound is very much of today. The album’s seven tracks tell the story of the mythical Hotel of its title, a place where the jaded, confused and addicted go to live out lives of mediocre hedonism. The hotel’s concierge is an all-knowing matriarch known as God, who spends her downtime between shifts “chain-smoking and typing eviscerating picture postcard portraits of the hotel’s guests.”

Are you with me so far?

Gradually, it becomes clear that the hotel’s surface sheen masks something altogether darker and more complicated – something that I suspect that will take many repeated listens before it is fully revealed… Speaking of the album’s theme, and of his motivation whilst coming up with the songs, Yellow Days says: “Hotel Heaven represents fake comfort in all its forms – this whole bullshit idea of luxury where nothing is real. I wanted to write about everything that is happening right now – this TikTok age where everyone wants to be famous. It’s also a big 360 of my life and career to date. I wanted to get away from everything I’d done before, wash my face and start afresh.”

The Hotel Heaven story begins with a short welcoming track, Welcome to the Hotel Heaven. George delivers a hypnotic, slurred vocal to a bass/percussion backing that is sparse, unsettling and every bit as hypnotic as George’s voice. It’s a framework that persists for much of the album. The Impala/Sly/Lennon phrasings are immediately evident as the funky Mrs Moonlight – the album’s lead single – kicks in. The funky backing – looping bass, primitive percussion and just a hint of piano – remains sparse, but thoroughly effective.

George’s Lennon-alike vocals ooze presence and passion on the equally funky You’re So Cool and the song’s elastic bassline effortlessly spans the years between 1971 and 2024, between Nixon and Biden, Krushchev and Putin, Lennon and Gallagher, before things take on a wholly different hue for the dreamy, psychedelic Finer Things in Life. Here, the instrumentation takes the front seat, whilst George’s vocals – previously way upfront – sink deeper into the mix. The solid bass is still there but this time, it’s joined by a cacophony of distorted guitars, hints of horn, and there’s even a short drum break. It all sounds a bit like a James Brown show being beamed down to Earth from another planet.,

The jazzy, spacey, Higher Room is maybe what John Lennon would have gone on to sound like, had he pursued his twin passions of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band soul-baring and avant garde exploration. The solid soul base is illuminated by lots of spacey, jazzy guitar – the perfect foil for George’s agonized vocals. And, speaking of George’s vocals, they reach something of a zenith with the splendid Crying for Help at the Suite. The jazzy, pared-back accompaniment of bass, simple percussion and the occasional splash of guitar is all that’s needed as George alternates between cabaret and all-out anguish on a vocal delivery that is as engaging as it is histrionic.

Everything comes together for Planet Earth, the album’s closing track. The rich soul groove, reminiscent of the late 60s Stax sound, is at its most pronounced here, and George’s vocals channel a mellower John Lennon than he’s favoured at any other point on the album.

Hotel Heaven is an album that has a great deal on offer; it’s one of those rare albums that will reveal a little bit more of itself each time it’s given a spin. And, as we all know, that’s the kind of album that lasts. Hotel Heaven is an album built to last.

Listen to Mrs Moonlight – the album’s lead single – here: