Back in March we described how Jordan Reynolds of Rose Hotel draws on a whole host of stylistic influences across new album A Pawn Surrender in an effort to better capture the emotional intricacies of relationships. The Atlanta artist described the decision as a “gamble,” risking a record which fell between categories, but the result proves such concerns were unheeded. “With her distinctive vocals as the anchoring thread,” we wrote, “the result feels less like a jumble of genres as an artist selecting specific tools for each occasion. Each style can do something others cannot, and Rose Hotel does not want to cut itself off from such possibilities.”
With the album now out via Strolling Bones Records, we’ve now got the full picture of just how stylistically and tonally diverse a collection of songs it is. “I was playing a lot of chess when I wrote this album, so I started to think about these songs as if they were all different pieces on the board representing varying aspects of my songwriting, personality and experience,” Reynolds explains:
Each piece has its own specific purpose and its own strength to utilize, but you can’t play the game with only your queen or your knights, or whatever. That became such a comforting idea and ethos to operate within – not just accepting variety but finding its inherent value. I went into the studio without any fear of being all over the board. I wanted to be limitless in letting my influences shine through the music in different ways. The throughline of Rose Hotel is my lyricism and my voice, but musically, I wanted to stretch out.”
The chess metaphor comes to the fore on ‘A King and a Pawn’, a country-inflected indie rocker that paints a picture of a relationship at an impasse. It explores the temptation to linger in a situation that has reached its end, the frustration of being caught static in a difficult situation, and the risk of making the next decisive move for fear of being checkmated further down the line. “Cornering each other, avoiding every move,” Reynolds sings, “refusing to surrender, even when it’s the best we could do.” But despite the overall sense of deadlock, the song itself is energizing. Propelled by percussion towards a cathartic chorus.
All we got left
is a king and a pawn
we’re caught in a stalemate, baby
and that’s just what’s wrong
Other tracks on the record explore similarly difficult circumstances. ‘Not Like That’ “explores the dissolution of a friendship in a way which attempts to make personal opinions clear while acknowledging the other person’s feelings too,” as we put it in a preview, while ‘Drown‘ delved into ideas of intergenerational trauma and mental illness in an attempt to reclaim a sense of agency by relinquishing those familial relationships that might never be smoothed over. “[‘Drown’ is] about realizing that the only way to break the cycle is to address it head on and choose to heal instead of continuing the patterns of violence and abuse,” Reynolds explains. “It’s my attempt at claiming power and ownership over my own life by releasing familial relationships that may never heal.”
And that proves to be the take-away sentiment of A Pawn Surrender. It takes the myriad of messy relationships and emotions and attempts to view them not as unbearable burdens but as something that can be figured out and overcome. It preaches the virtues vital to any good chess player—patience, strategy, self-reliance—and applies them to life in general. It’s a reminder to rely on your strengths, to accept and work on your weaknesses and ultimately approach things in a slower, more considered manner.
A Pawn Surrender is out on the 7th June via Strolling Bones Records and you can pre-order it now from the Rose Hotel Bandcamp page.
