Hotel Surrender
Four years after laying his Chet Faker project to rest and releasing music as Nick Murphy, the New York-based Australian singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has returned to his original moniker. Dialing back the more far-flung turns of 2014’s *Built on Glass* and his subsequent work under his given name, *Hotel Surrender* concentrates on the sweet spot that made him a star in the first place. These are quiet, confiding earworms that never feel overcrowded, letting us appreciate each individual element as it slots into place. His intimate vocals and close-knit grooves emanate from the very top of the 10-track album, starting with the slow-mo mantra of opener “Oh Me Oh My.” “Low” reintroduces his homespun R&B, embellished with guitar and purring bass, while the rousing motivational session “Feel Good” harks back to the soulful simplicity of his “No Diggity”-era breakthrough a decade earlier. Though Murphy has played piano a particular way for most of his life, “Get High” marks the first time he’s ever incorporated a groove he’s described as “drunken funk swing” into his own music. The song is woozy and warm, with his piano work sitting perfectly atop a familiar drum snap. It’s a surprising moment on *Hotel Surrender*, and one which proves exactly why Murphy felt he had more to give as Chet Faker.
Reviving the Chet Faker persona he'd abandoned back in 2016, Nick Murphy finds salvation in the hypnotic grooves and dark electronic soul of Hotel Surrender.
Nick Murphy returns under his alias with a fix of tasteful but unmemorable coffee-table pop
After a five-year hiatus, Aussie indie-popper Nick Murphy reactivates the alias of Chet Faker that made him famous. The results on 'Hotel Surrender' are chill.