Canadian alt-rock outfit Hotel Mira is back with the new full-length album, ‘Pity Party’. There’s nothing quite like a record that lets you dance through your worst decisions and cry through your most defiant moments. This album manages to do both in twelve tracks of punchy theatrics, emotional chaos, and sharply delivered self-awareness. It’s a record that thrives in contradiction- euphoric and bleak, romantic and grotesque, deeply personal and universally messy.
Lead by the magnetic Charlie Kerr, ‘Pity Party’ taps into that universal pendulum swing between reckless abandon and crippling introspection. Each song captures a snapshot of a different high or low, sometimes both in the same breath. His ability to inject a sense of narrative grandeur into even the most debauched scenario makes these tracks feel less like songs and more like monologues from the world’s most compelling antihero.
Opener ‘America’s Favourite Pastime’ sets the tone with a swaggering, Iggy Pop-worthy snarl- equal parts glam and gutter. It’s big, it’s bold, it’s knowingly excessive. And it’s the perfect invitation to the album’s emotional rollercoaster. From there, ‘Right Back Where I Was’ and ‘Melissa’ flirt with disaster, diving headfirst into the sticky adrenaline of self-sabotage.
Where Hotel Mira really shines is in their ability to pivot from ironic detachment to gut-level honesty. ‘Made For This’ and ‘Cowboy’ peel back the glitter to reveal the bruises beneath. Kerr’s lyricism on these cuts is painfully aware of its own flaws, yet never self-indulgent. He walks the tightrope between romantic disillusionment and bitter humour with the precision of someone who’s been there and done that.
‘Making Progress’ stands tall as the record’s philosophical core- an anthem for survival that’s more grounded than grandiose. Likewise, ‘There Goes the Neighbourhood’ is a late-album comedown that trades bravado for vulnerability, giving the whole record a sense of full-circle gravity.
Overall, ‘Pity Party’ is a well-oiled chaos machine. Clark Grieve’s guitar work oscillates between crisp post-punk stabs and dreamy shoegaze textures, while Mike Noble and Cole George drive each track forward with unrelenting rhythm section finesse. The production leans into grit when it needs to, but never loses sight of melody- a tightrope act that keeps the whole album feeling cohesive, even as it veers stylistically between glam rock, alt-pop, and art-punk.
What makes ‘Pity Party’ hit hardest, though, is its self-awareness. This isn’t just an album about bad nights and worse mornings, it’s about what happens when you’re left to sift through the emotional wreckage. But Hotel Mira doesn’t wallow; instead, they take the shame, the longing, the loneliness, and they turn it into gut-punching catharsis.
If you’re looking for an album that embraces the chaos of feeling too much, being too much, and somehow still makes you feel like maybe you’re going to be okay, ‘Pity Party’ is for you.