Empress Hotel

This New Orleans sextet takes its name from a sketchy pay-by-the-hour hotel near the French Quarter, where online reviews read like crime blotter excerpts. But instead of dipping into the region’s traditional blues- or jazz-based fare to chronicle the debauchery, Empress Hotel funnels retro ’70s FM radio touchstones (mid-era Roxy Music, Sparxx, Prince) into a modern blend of romantic pop that insists on silver linings.

Though only five tracks long, the band’s debut EP shows impressive diversity. The songwriting brain trust of guitarist Ryan Rogers and singer/guitarist Micah McKee apply a sparkling sheen of toy pianos, bubbly synths, guy/girl harmonies and dance beats to melodies that have an undertow of wistfulness. The contrast grounds the songs and keeps them from both disco-ball disposability and flash-for-beads rock tropes. Opener “Bells Ring” layers airy harmonies and a playful farfisa over a martial beat that rushes headlong into chiming belfry choruses; McKee may sing of being set up “for the fall,” but taking the plunge feels like liberating abandon. “Mach Bach” is at a full-gallop from the onset, with escalator synth notes and cut-and-paste percussion hurtling toward crescendos that explode like shattering chandeliers.

Hotel Empress turns out to be just as adept at the slow jams. “Search Light” is a 10cc melody and metronomic beat that’s layered with Huff & Gamble-like synth strings and soulful guitar chords. The title track starts off like a Gayngs and Hot Chip mash-up before erupting in textured crescendos so hooky that sitting still is impossible.

The EP ends on the perfect leave-them-wanting-more note with “Here Comes the New Challenger.” The Romeo & Juliet courtship tale features bass and drums, crushed and processed into warm embracing fuzz. It’s a blanket for the “woo-woo” harmonies that cushion McKee’s “I’m at your window” pleas. Whether he lands the girl or not is immaterial; Hotel Empress knows there’s beauty in not giving in, just like their indefatigable hometown. —John Schacht