My Two Cents: The Chess Hotel

While others are praising this, The Elms' latest project, I am disappointed. I like its predecessor, Truth, Soul, Rock & Roll, much better. To borrow reviewer Andree Farias' description of the two, I guess I prefer TSRR's "jangly, Beatlesque" sound to TCH's "'60s and '70s-inspired rock in the vein of The Rolling Stones, The Who and AC/DC." Since I like TSRR so much, I was definitely excited when I heard the band was picked up by Universal South Records after a two-year stint as label orphans. TSRR is my favorite Elms album, although my autographed copy of the band's indie record, Just Visiting, is a novelty. (A little trivia: Just Visiting served as the rock outfit's name before it adopted The Elms moniker.) I'll never forget the show I saw in the late 90s in my alma mater's Dimnent Memorial Chapel when The Elms (at that time, an indie band composed of high schoolers) opened for Big Tent Revival and blew established BTR out of the water.