Red’s Motel are an alternative rock trio from Maryland, USA who have just come to my attention through the release of their upcoming debut album Chapters End.
By Graeme Smith
Led by Red Hawes, Red’s Motel have been playing together for well over a decade. They previously performed under the name Grand Elusion from 2010 to 2016, and returned from a college hiatus in 2023. On the local live scene they’re known as much as a covers band as one who plays original, yet their debut album sweeps that assertion aside with fourteen self-penned songs.
Though they’ve lost the covers, they’ve not lost the influences and in Red’s Motel music you can detect love for rock and blues ranging from the ’60s to modern day. The result in an eclectic but cohesive catalogue of rock.
We get right into it with the slow-burning The Curse I Bear. Lonesome, echoing guitar notes set the scene before the emotional tapestry slowly builds to the hard-hitting riffs. The track acts as a prelude to Amber Ashes which is our first song proper. The build up is not wasted, and we get a pacy, urgent post-rock number with some devilishly difficult guitar work. Things relax into a steady groove that backs soulful vocals. It’s a strong start.
The band have released three singles from the album so far, and they act as focal points throughout the album’s story. Title track Chapters End comes first of the three and gives us some juddering, anthemic romance. Better Off and Scars appear in the run up to the album’s climactic conclusion and bring some irrepressible indie rock and pacy prog respectively.
Elsewhere we get some dramatic rise and fall (Somewhere In Between, Another Saturday, Handwritten Therapy), punchy dynamism (Nights at the Station, Chameleon, Husk), haunting melancholia (Behind the Smile, Blink of an Eye, Your Memory’s a Blessing).
This is a huge debut from Red’s Motel and if you like your rock on the emotional side you need to check it out. I’m looking forward to seeing where the guys take their diverse sound.
Chapters End is set for release 30 April 2024.
