ALBUM REVIEW: Rose Hotel’s ‘A Pawn Surrender’ is Singular and Beautiful
Maeri Ferguson
Posted On December 17, 2024
EDITOR’S NOTE: Rose Hotel’s A Pawn Surrender came out on June 7, on Strolling Bones Records. We’re reviewing it now as part of a year-end round up of some of the best albums we missed along the way this year.
Like the unexpected twists and turns implied by the chess allegory its title references, Rose Hotel’s self-assured label debut, A Pawn Surrender, keeps you on your toes. Navigating a kaleidoscope of genres—one minute it is subdued folk, the next a fuzzy pop-rock confection reminiscent of late 1990’s-era Cardigans tunes, and then suddenly all the unbothered cool of Courtney Barnett—Jordan Reynolds never fully shows her hand. Instead, she offers just a taste of all the different sonic realms that have pulled her threads, weaving them into something really singular and beautiful. And like the most skilled chess opponent, Reynolds using her cunning to seamlessly switch modes, gentle then cutting, aloof then deeply anxious, nostalgic, then hopeful.
It should be long past the point where genre confinement matters, but many still don’t know where to place an artist like Reynolds, and that is what makes Rose Hotel and A Pawn Surrender so special. Anchored by the hazy coo she deftly employs to be bewitching and alluring, demure, or indignant, songs like the hypnotic “Pushing Me” and “Fruit Tree” cast a spell with trippy arrangements, and “Fall in Love Again and Again” and “Drown” send a shiver through guitar-centric grooves. Crystalline pop melodies (“King and a Pawn”) converge with shimmery declarations of devotion (“On Your Side”), and golden-hued 1970’s country (“Illusion Anyway”), proof that Reynolds’ years touring as a bandmate with other acts have helped her zero in on a sound that’s all her own, a dreamy and smooth amalgam.
Where Reynolds shines brightest on A Pawn Surrender is “Not Like That.” With its gleaming blend of pedal steel and keys, it’s a song about all the ways memory can play tricks, and the past can be romanticized. It’s also a song about growing up, predictability, feeling let down, but trudging on anyway, and it feels made for countless repeat listens.
