The Chateau Marmont is a 90-year-old hotel located in the heart of Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Boulevard. It’s 63 rooms have been frequented over the years by such romanticized luminaries as Jim Morrison, Sharon Tate and her then Roman Polanski, Hunter S. Thompson, Billy Wilder, Annie Leibovitz, Dorothy Parker, F. Scott Fitzgerald and a host of others too numerous to mention. John Belushi died there. Now former Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker and Grammy Award-winning Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales have taken up residence in Room 29 of the infamous chateau with nothing more than a grand piano and their wits about them. A surreal modern day Coward-esque drawing room dramedy fueled by Cocker’s bittersweet dialogue and acerbic wit, Room 29 is perhaps the most refreshingly unique and unusual albums of the year.
Rating: 9.5/10