Music Recommendation: Hotel Lights

Darren Jessee was the drummer for Ben Folds Five, co-wrote several songs for them, and now leads this band, Hotel Lights. It's quiet-but-melodic fare, with traces of Will Oldham but a bit more ornamental than his stuff. And if you don't like Ben Folds (though I do), that doesn't matter, because it doesn't sound like him.

I liked the record (self-titled) the first time I heard it, but it's also really grown on me in a pleasing way, and almost nothing does that these days. By the third or fourth time through, the songs will really burrow their way into your head. My favorite track is probably "What You Meant," but there are lots of standouts -- "You Come and Go," "Miles Behind Me," and "Motionless" being tops among them.

I haven't discovered many bands in the past year or so that I would heartily recommend, but I think this is one of them.