“Hangers On” is a haunting, expansive track from Echo Hotel, a band split between London and Bristol. Emotive vocal quivers, brassy adornments, and textured guitars resemble a feeling reminiscent of later-era Talk Talk. The escalating vocal rise past the two-minute mark is especially impactful, coming down effectively with calming organs and brass before reprising the uptick in energy. “Hangers On” is a sweltering aesthetic and melodic success, with an artistic psych-tinged vein of rock that thoroughly succeeds.
“Hangers On” is the final single from Echo Hotel’s 2019 sessions with Jonathan Segar, following up last year’s tracks “Nocturne (For Jack & Jill)”, “Supervisor” and “Dispatches.”
Lead singer Ed Hambly expands upon the track below:
“The idea that turned into “Hangers On” came from a time I went back to my brother’s house with him after one of his club nights. We found it just full of random people engaged in an out-of-control afters. He’d not met most of them before – they were friends of friends, smoking area limpets, booth huggers etc – but here they all were, trampling all over his stuff and asking him who he was and if he knew where the toilet was. This theme of alienation and discomfort in your own home has stuck with me for years. He lives somewhere else now, and has a cat.”
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“Hangers On” and other memorable tracks from this month can also be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of May 2021’ Spotify playlist.
