Hotel Paper is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Michelle Branch. It was released on June 24, 2003, through Maverick Records. The production on the album was handled by a variety of record producers such as Josh Abraham, Rick Depofi, John Leventhal, John Shanks & Greg Wells.
Hotel Paper was supported by three singles: "Are You Happy Now?", "Breathe" and "'Til I Get Over You". The album received mixed critical reviews and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200, selling 157,000 copies in its first week.
|rev1 = AllMusic
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|rev2 = Entertainment Weekly
|rev2score = C
|rev3 = Los Angeles Times
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|rev4 = Now
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|rev5 = Q
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|rev7 = Slant Magazine
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|rev8 = Stylus Magazine
|rev8score = C−
|rev9 = Spin
|rev9score = 6/10
|rev10 = Yahoo! Music UK
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Hotel Paper earned mixed reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 57, based on ten reviews. Similarly, Dan Aquilante from The New York Post observed that "There's an undercurrent of anger on this record that Branch manages to channel and transform into rock intensity." Steve Hochman of the Los Angeles Times described Hotel Paper as "state-of-the-art pop" but criticized Branch's songwriting: "The only thing [she] sings about is dating problems, and she does so in generic terms [...] Branch has experienced a big, wide world out there in the last couple of years. Too bad it's not reflected in her songs." This became Branch's first US top-ten debut and highest first-week sales to date. In its third week, the album dropped to number six on the chart, selling 65,000 more copies. The album spent a total of 33 weeks on the US Billboard 200 chart. On December 9, 2003, the album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over a million copies.
In Canada, the album peaked at number four on the Canadian Album Chart and was certified gold for shipments of over 50,000 copies.
Track listing
Personnel
Performers and musicians
- Michelle Branch – vocals, acoustic guitar (3–5), guitars (8, 10, 13), percussion (10), keyboards (13), backing vocals (14)
- Jamie Muhoberac – keyboards (1–3, 9)
- Patrick Warren – keyboards (4, 5, 7, 9, 12, 13)
- Josh Abraham – keyboards (6), programming (6)
- Oliver Goldstein – acoustic piano (6), keyboards (6), programming (6)
- Greg Wells – acoustic piano (8, 10), organ (8, 10), guitars (8), bass (8),Wurlitzer electric piano (10)
- John Leventhal – keyboards (11), guitars (11), bass (11)
- Lars Fox – programming (13)
- Rick Nowels – keyboards (14), acoustic guitar (14), backing vocals (14)
- Chester D. Thompson – acoustic piano (14), organ (14)
- Dave Navarro – guitars (2)
- John Shanks – guitars (2–5, 7, 9, 12, 13), bass (3, 9, 13), programming (13)
- Stuart Smith – mandolin (7)
- Carlos Santana – electric lead guitar (14), horn arrangements (14)
- Rusty Anderson – additional electric guitar (14)
- Paul Bushnell – bass (2)
- Chris Chaney – bass (4, 5, 7, 9, 12)
- Mike Elizondo – bass (9)
- Dan Rothchild – bass (10)
- Benny Rietveld – bass (14)
- Kenny Aronoff – drums (2–5, 7, 9, 12, 13)
- Brian MacLeod – drums (8, 10)
- Shawn Pelton – drums (11)
- Vinnie Colaiuta – drums (13)
- Brian Collier – drums (14)
- Wayne Rodrigues – drum programming (14)
- Luis Conte – percussion (8), additional percussion (14)
- Chris Reynolds – percussion (10)
- Rick Depofi – percussion (11)
- Karl Perazzo – percussion (14)
- Raul Rekow – congas (14)
- Jeff Cressman – trombone (14), horn arrangements (14)
- Marty Wehner – trombone (14)
- Julius Melendez – trumpet (14)
- Bill Ortiz – trumpet (14), horn arrangements (14)
- David Campbell – string arrangements (4)
- Sheryl Crow – vocals (7)
- Jessica Harp – backing vocals (8)
- Siedah Garrett – backing vocals (14)
- Niki Haris – backing vocals (14)
- Tony Lindsay – additional vocals (14)
- Andy Vargas – additional vocals (14)
Technical
- Danny Strick – A&R
- John Shanks – producer (1–5, 7, 9, 12, 13)
- Josh Abraham – producer (6), mixing (6)
- Greg Wells – producer (8, 10)
- John Leventhal – producer (11, 15)
- Rick Depofi – co-producer (11), engineer (11)
- Alex Anders – producer (14)
- Rick Nowels – producer (14)
- Dan Chase – recording (2–5, 7, 9, 12)
- Marc DeSisto – recording (2–5, 7, 9, 12, 13)
- Lars Fox – recording (2–5, 7, 9, 12, 13), Pro Tools editing (13)
- Jeff Rothschild – recording (2–5, 7, 9, 12)
- Ryan Williams – engineer (6)
- Brian Scheuble – engineer (8, 10)
- Greg Collins – engineer (14)
- Chris Garcia – engineer (14)
- Jim Gaines – engineer (14)
- Michael Rosen – engineer (14)
- Randy Wine – engineer (14)
- Brian Humphrey – assistant engineer (2–5, 7, 9, 12)
- Eric Reichers – assistant engineer (2–5, 7, 9, 12)
- Mark Valentine – assistant engineer (2–5, 7, 9, 12)
- Mark J. Ciccula – assistant engineer (6)
- Chris Reynolds – second engineer (8, 10)
- Jorge Velez – assistant engineer (11)
- Ben Conrad – assistant engineer (14)
- Scott Holderby – assistant engineer (14)
- Kieron Menzies – assistant engineer (14)
- Alec Veucasovic – assistant engineer (14)
- Chris Lord-Alge – mixing (2–5, 7, 9, 12, 13)
- Jim Scott – mixing (8, 10)
- Roger Moutenot – mixing (11)
- Manny Marroquin – mixing (14)
- Jesse Gorman – mix assistant (6)
- Chris Holmes – mix assistant (10)
- Rob Clark – mix assistant (11)
- Josh "Tone" Weaver – Pro Tools editing (14)
- Brian Gardner – mastering at Bernie Grundman Mastering (Hollywood, California)
- Jill Dell'Abate – production coordinator (11)
- Robert Cappadona – project coordinator (14)
- Kirsten Johnson – project coordinator (14)
- Frank "Flem" Maddocks – art direction, design
- Sheryl Nields – photography
- Jeff Rabhan – management
Charts
Weekly charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Weekly chart performance for Hotel Paper
! scope="col"| Chart (2003)
! scope="col"| Peak<br />position
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!scope="row"|Japanese Albums (Oricon)
| 8
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ Year-end chart performance for Hotel Paper
! scope="col"| Chart (2003)
! scope="col"| Position
|-
! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
| 86
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