Album Review: Gold Motel’s Summer House

Jul 5, 2010 by Sarah Morrison

Album: Summer House

Release Date: June 1st, 2010

Well this is a little embarrassing. I was sent Gold Motel’s EP a couple of months back kindly by their lead vocalist Greta, formally of The Hush Sound. But in the time that it’s taken me to get my act together to review the EP, they’ve gone and released a full length! Honestly, these indie bands and their organisational skills. So to try and keep up with the times, I’ve decided to forgo the EP and dive straight in to writing some very nice things about their album, Summer House. And nice writing it does indeed deserve, being a lovely, sunshine-tinged jaunty escapade of a record.

Summer House is one of those gorgeous, jumpy boppy indie albums that will be spinning on your mp3 player all summer long just because it makes you smile. Vocals and keys are provided by Greta Morgan, who uses the former to coat the album in a golden honeyed shine, and the latter to ground it firmly in the territory of classically uplifting pop music. These combined with a duo of guitars with a surf’s-up-sounding twang and a solid rhythm section, make Gold Motel’s sound one that invokes images of California summers, floaty dresses, melted ice cream and diving into lakes in the blazing sun.

Greta and the Boys

There is happiness seeping from almost every wave of this album; from Morgan’s crystal clear, lilting vocals to the close vocal harmonies with guitarist Dan, and the keyboard sounds dotting in and out of each song, Summer House is bursting with songs that are just dying to get stuck in your head – and they will succeed. There are a few tracks that really shine through on Summerhouse, like ‘Perfect in my Mind’ during which I defy anyone to resist singing along to some ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ by the end, ‘Safe in LA’ which will have you dancing like an idiot all over the shop, and ‘The Cruel One’ with its jolly piano track and heavily punctuated rhythms beneath cool and sweet vocals.

But in the end, all you really need to know is that if you need a good happy soundtrack for anything you do during this summer, just spend a while in Gold Motel’s beautifully decorated, multi-coloured Summer House.

~Sarah Morrison

Sarah writes for LeftLion in Notthigham and blogs about music at Miss Morrison’s Mix