Maritime - 'Heresy and the Hotel Choir'

As much as I love the ’90s incarnation of the genre, a sad part of emo (no pun intended here) is its unwillingness to let stuff go. I’m not just talking about unrequited loves; I’m talking about the fans. Emo fans hate it when their bands grow up. The Get Up Kids took flak for On a Wire; Jawbreaker only just recently got its due for Dear You, which is to say nothing of Jets to Brazil, Blake Schwarzenbach’s criminally underappreciated follow-up band; The Promise Ring disappointed many folks with Wood/Water when all they wanted was Nothing Feels Good 2: The Pandering.

It’s a shame fans lose interest so easily, though. They’re missing out on some classy tunes. Case in point: Heresy and the Hotel Choir by Maritime. The not-so-new band from Promise Ring members Davey von Bohlen and Dan Didier, Maritime is a remarkable pop rock band for fans who thought everything PR did post-1997 was still solid gold.

I’d like to compare Maritime as the Jets to Brazil to The Promise Ring’s Jawbreaker, in that it is a worthy second act that simply does not get enough credit. While The Promise Ring’s older material has a bit more grit to it than that of Maritime’s, that’s more a result of lo-fi recording than musical crunch. Besides, frontman von Bohlen still crafts catchy gems either way. They’re not as wide eyed and naïve as older songs like “Make Me a Mixtape” or “B is for Bethlehem,” but they do offer just as much glee.

Album opener “Guns of Navarone” is every bit as catchy as anything off of Nothing Feels Good. Yeah, I said it. It’s got a carefree pomp to it, rollicking along in a pseudo-country bar band fashion. Emo-country-rock? Perhaps; perhaps not.

Heresy and the Hotel Choir carries with it more ethereal instrumentation, though. Where a Promise Ring song would get to the point fairly quickly—using as little as two lines for a verse before hitting a chorus—Maritime feels things out. Von Bohlen and Dan Hinz let their guitars mix in some ambience on tracks like “Are We Renegade” and “With Holes for Thumb Sized Birds.” Think of it as U2-ean without the preachiness.

Sometimes these vibes translate into new wave, like on “Hand Over Hannover” or “Pearl.” At times, the band briefly recalls such weighty comparisons as The Cure or The Smiths, but just for mere moments.

Some songs still get to the point quite quickly, however (i.e. these should be singles!). Track three, “For Science Fiction,” comes with a galloping bass line, fist-pumping drums and, of course, von Bohlen’s trademark voice, catchy and yet slightly odd with its reedy lisp and straining vocal cords.

A little over a year since its previous album, We, the Vehicles, Maritime has returned with Heresy and the Hotel Choir, and fans of indie rock and ’90s emo should pay attention. These guys are crapping out pop gems like whoa, so listen up.