Photo by Kylie Shaffer

Two years ago, The Hotelier released Home, Like Noplace Is There, their sophomore full-length and one of the most cathartic, kickass emo records of 2014. Come May 27th, the Massachusetts outfit will return with its follow-up, Goodness, through Tiny Engines. The 13-track collection was engineered and produced by Seth Manchester (The Body, Battles) at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket, Rhode Island last summer.

An official statement compares The Hotelier’s previous two LPs to Goodness, saying:

“It is not enough to say that The Hotelier have grown older, or wiser, or more of anything. We can trace a progression, if we like, from the explosive empowerment of It Never Goes Out to the ashen disillusionment of Home, Like Noplace Is There. We can follow an awakening of youth in suburbia attempting to learn what is right, and what is ours, and what is possible and impossible, and maybe we can’t save each other like we thought we once could. We’re awake and we’re tired and we want love in our lives again. And so we find ourselves now in Goodness, in the woods outside of the suburbs, trying to re-learn that love.”

Our first look at the new album comes courtesy of “Piano Player”, a six-minute single of steady, driving fire. Here, frontman Christian Holden can be heard howling the word “sustain” throughout the length of the chorus, stretching and holding onto its syllables as though he were testing out the limits of his endurance.

Stream it below.

Update — Tuesday, March 22nd at 11:47 a.m. CT: The band has shared the official music video for “Piano Player” (via SPIN).

In addition, The Hotelier have also put out the non-album track “Goodness Pt. 1”, which was previously only available on a tour 7-inch; check that out here. (Its sequel “Goodness Pt. 2” appears on Goodness.)

Goodness Tracklist:

01. N 43° 59′ 38.927″ W 71° 23′ 45.27”

02. Goodness Pt. 2

03. Piano Player

04. N 43° 33′ 55.676″ W 72° 45′ 11.914″

05. Two Deliverances

06. Settle the Scar

07. Opening Mail for My Grandmother

08. N 42° 6′ 3.001″ W 71° 55′ 3.295″

09. Soft Animal

10. Sun

11. You in This Light

12. Fear of Good

13. End of Reel