The Metropolitan Hotel

Chely Wright | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 22, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dualtone Music Group
• ASIN: B0007CNY7M
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,177 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The Metropolitan Hotel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another winner, March 20, 2005

By 

K. Stuckey "kateling" (Port Huron, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Metropolitan Hotel (Audio CD)

Just when I start to worry that I'll never hear Chely Wright on the radio again, she delivers another from the heart. "Bumper of My SUV" is a true story and I get goosebumps every time I hear it because I know she has been there. I also love the sentimental "Back of a Bottom Drawer", "Southside of Lonesome" and her spunky cover of "C'est la Vie (You Never Can Tell)". This CD has such raw emotion that is rare in today's world of polished, cookie cutter music. Clearly an independent label was the way for her to go because this is truly an album for the fans. Thanks Chely!

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wright's Most Mature Effort to Date, June 3, 2005

By 

J. M. Zuurbier (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Metropolitan Hotel (Audio CD)

Chely Wright is back with her first new album in three and a half years. Her first album for Dualtone Records. The title is THE METROPOLITAN HOTEL, a title Chely says is inspired by a hotel she stayed in England while she worked on the album. The album is very different from her other Nashville albums. This one is still country but much more of an artistic endeavor than a commercial one. The first few singles have slumped up the charts, with "Bumper of my SUV" cracking the top 40 a few months ago. The first single was "Back of the Bottom Drawer", which got a lukewarm reception on country radio. Her newest single is the moving ballad "The River". Other moving ballads include "Wheels" and "Between a Mother And A Child". The album closes nicely with "What If I Can't Say No Again", a personal favorite of mine. Overall a strong album from Chely Wright.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wright matures into an album artist, May 13, 2005

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Metropolitan Hotel (Audio CD)

After a four-year hiatus from album releases, and a departure from MCA for the artist-friendly indie Dualtone, Wright has returned with a songwriter's album. Her first self-produced album provides several interesting dichotomies. The self-penned songs are more personal than those she previously picked from Nashville's stable of writers, but at times the intimacy turns to treacle. Further, while the production is stripped back to a sound that balances nicely with Wright's earthy tenor, there's no escaping the years of being conditioned to the crossover sounds of her earlier radio-ready major-label releases.

The result feels like the first step in a new phase of Wright's career - one that, as the lead track emotionally portrays, is fueled by songs rather than hits. Which isn't to suggest that there aren't potential hits to be found here, as the lead single, "The Bumper of My S.U.V.," has shown. But the interwoven tragedies of "The River," and the first-person narrative of "Between a Mother and a Child" exert the sort of emotional gravity that would pull listeners too far into their thoughts for a commercial break. While a few others Nashville artists fill out their albums with worthwhile non-hits (Patty Loveless being a prime example), Wright's turned the equation around: recording a cohesive, artistic album that just happens to feature a few hit-ready tracks.

Hats off to Dualtone for stepping in to promote Wright as a musical artist, just as Nashville's majors decided she wasn't worth promoting as a hit single machine.