Released four years after their last album, Later Tonight, Motel la Solitude features a rich tapbestry of well-crafted songs that take the group’s sound in some fresh new directions, while retaining enough of the group’s signature songs – Max Giunta’s plaintive, urgent vocals, electric piano and lush synthesizer arrangements – to create one of the first truly outstanding albums of the new year.

The pleasures of this delightful album are best appreciated with a good pair of headphones. The production on Motel la Solitude is first rate, with the group’s lush arrangements rarely if ever sounding muddy or over-produced. A new addition to the Babylonia sound on this album is guitar, which is perfectly integrated into the group’s rich instrumental tapestry on several songs, and adds an exciting new dimension to the group’s already-distinctive style.

Here are some highlights:

A Feeling Without Feeling: The first song on Motel la Solitude starts out with a stark, lonely synth line, followed by Max’s expressive vocals. Against this spartan backdrop, the song slowly builds into a delectable, multifaceted mid-tempo number punctuated by a soaring synthsizer riff.

On The Corner: An ominous sounding mid-tempo song that is one of my favorites. After a 30-second synthesizer intro, the lead guitar is paired with drums to establish a strong, driving beat for this excellent song. As usual, Max’s plaintive vocals reinforce the ominous tone of On the Corner: “Something waits around the corner/I don’t want to discover/What stands around the corner/I’m trembling.” A very cool song!

By My Side: A great selection for the first single from Motel la Solitude. This song has a very lush sound and a strong beat. I love the way Babylonia uses different instruments and vocals to set up a point-counterpoint, with synth and guitar playfully swirling around in my headphones.

Better Days: An excellent ballad, underscored by a soaring synthesizer line that reflects the lyrics’ hopeful tone:  “We just can’t seen to find a way/So I can pray for better days.”

Ethereal Connection: Another well-crafted, lush mid-tempo song. One of its highlights is a beautiful instrumental interlude about 1:40 into this excellent song that serves as its bridge.

Myself Into Myself: This song features many playful touches and contrasts in it’s lush arrangement that gives it a DM-esque sound.

Requiem For Me: A sparse but blissful ballad that features a great point-counterpoint between Max’s heavenly vocals and atmospheric synth lines. Pure ear candy!

Soundtrack for an End: This excellent song features propulsive vocals, underscored by a playful beat underscored by jangly synths. At the end of the song, there is a very cool interlude with what sounds like a synthesized slide guitar. Heavenly!

Love Not For Me: A soaring, multi-layered violin intro slowly reaches a crescendo, then transitions into a propulsive beat with synth accents that sounds very reminiscent of recent Depeche Mode songs. Lots of playful noises and synthesizer riffs swirl around Max’s distinctive vocals, making this a real stand-out track, in my opinion.

Although it’s too early in 2010 to proclaim Babylonia’s new release as the best album of the new year, it’s certainly in first place on my playlist right now!

You can listen to excerpts of four songs on Babylonia’s MySpace page. Motel la Solitude will be released on January 15, 2010.

Meanwhile, here is an interview I recently did with Max from Babylonia:

Chuck Frey: What were your goals for Motel la Solitude?

Max: We have tried to move forward from the previous album “Later Tonight” in terms of experimenting. We wanted a harder and more organic album and we think we did it.

CF: What does the name of the album signify?

Max: A motel is a place where people stay for just a night or a little more. A place of transition and meditation as well, but also a place of rest and break. We think that somehow this is the mood of the new album. In addiction to that, we find the words “Motel La Solitude” very poetic and elegant.

CF: What is the official release date?

Max: Motel La Solitude will be out on 15th january 2010 on CD and digital formats.

CF: What are you and Robbie proudest of on this album? What excites you about it?

Max: To be honest, we are really proud of every part of the album : we love the production, most of the songs (melodies and lyrics), the artwork itself. We worked hard for this new record, so it’s a great satisfaction for us.

CF: How does this new album reflect an evolution of the Babylonia musical style?

Max: At the beginning of the recording sessions of Motel La Solitude we felt that we didn’t wanted another dance/club oriented album as Later Tonight. We keep on listening new music and discovering new artists and genres, so somehow this reflects on our work. We have grown as persons as well as musicians and probably, thanks to this, new album sounds more articulated and rich.

CF: What made you decide to work with sound engineer Marco Barusso? What did he help you to achieve on Motel la Solitude?

Max: We knew what Marco did with bands like Lacuna Coil, Cradle Of Filth and other great names. So we were lucky to work with him. He was fundamental in studio because he helped us in giving a cooler energy to the tracks, especially on the drums.

CF: Four years between albums – do you consider yourselves to be perfectionists when you’re writing and producing songs?

Max: Oh yes! We release a new work only when we are very proud and feel secure about it.

CF: What were your sources of inspiration while writing and producing Motel la Solitude?

Max: Personal life and an uncertain amount of records we listened to during these years.

CF: Do you feel that you’ve grown in confidence as songwriters and performers? How so?

Max: Yes we do! We had the chance to perform in many European cities like Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Praga, Bratislava and more. Moreover, we opened the concerts of many talented artists like IAMX, Clients and Melotron : watching all these acts at work from a very close perspective was very instructive. All these experiences helped us in feeling more confident on stage, so nowadays our concerts are more enjoyable and rich than before!

CF: You mention in your publicity materials that you have refined your sound in part through your experiences of playing live shows throughout Europe. What are some of the things you learned, and how have they influence the direction of your music?

Max: Playing new songs in front of an audience can help you in perceiving your songs in a different way. For example, you can realize that a song needs a different structure as the old one doesn’t work at all. Also, playing live new material from “Motel La Solitude” pushed us in searching a sound more powerful and strong, because you want to see people dancing and moving during your shows.

CF: You also indicate that Motel la Solitude appeals not only to fans of synthpop music, but also anyone who loves a good pop song. Did you write the songs on this album with the goal of appealing to a much broader audience?

Max: We don’t have any expectation or goal during the writing but we find new songs potentially enjoyable to a larger audience.

CF: Where will you be touring to promote Motel la Solitude? Any plans to come to the States?

Max: We are currently building up a promotional tour that will start on 20th february 2010 in Istanbul. Then we will play 6-7 shows throughout Italy. We will constantly update out websites with news dates and further infos. We’d love to play in the States, it would be a dream!  We hope someday to have the chance to come and play there!

CF: What else would you like to say to the readers of the Modern Synthpop blog?

Max: We invite them to discover our music through our websites (www.babyloniamusic.com and www.myspace.com/babylonia) and we hope to meet them to one of our next concerts. Keep on supporting synthpop music! Thanks for your kindness and ciao from Italy!

Watch for my review of Motel la Solitude on this blog!