Goodness is the third studio album by American indie rock band The Hotelier. After being announced in February 2016, it was released in May through independent label Tiny Engines.
Artwork The artwork was done by Brooklyn-based artist Xirin. It features a group of elderly people fully nude standing in a field. A censored version used for online retailers was noticeable for its extreme censoring, with the artists stating they took an "all or nothing" approach, saying "Instead of making a version of the image that was digestible or easy on the eyes, we just chose to obscure the photo entirely, to convey that we’re sorry you can’t see it... rather than compromise the image and the meaning behind it."
Critical reception
Goodness received mostly positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 85, based on 10 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim". Writing for Exclaim!, Conor Mackie gave the album an extremely positive review, hailing it as "their most mature, most complete record to date."
Accolades Publication Accolade Year Rank The A.V. Club The A.V. Club's Top 50 Albums of 2016 2016 Billboard Billboard's 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016 Consequence of Sound Top 50 Albums of 2016 2016 Pitchfork The 20 Best Rock Albums of 2016 2016 Readers' Top 50 Albums of 2016 2016 Stereogum The 50 Best Albums of 2016 2016
Track listing
Personnel Christian Holden – bass, vocals, piano, guitar Chris Hoffman – guitar, vocals Ben Gauthier – guitar, percussion Sam Frederick – percussion
References