Is Old Dominion’s ‘Hotel Key’ a Hit? Listen and Sound Off!
Old Dominion are living a binary life in that every song they release goes to No. 1 or No. 2. "Hotel Key" should have no trouble keeping the streak alive.
The playful, love-for-a-day, pop-country flavor is comparable to "Snapback," a hit song from their debut album Meat and Candy. Ride Geoff Sprung's bass groove for a verse and chorus before playing air guitar alongside the thick riffs that trail Matt Ramsey's vocals. Lyrically, Ramsey, guitarist Trevor Rosen and Josh Osborne tell a more detailed story than the number of words on the page would suggest. Individually, the men of Old Dominion are nothing if not efficient songwriters. Being able to contrast summer frivolities like this with more pensive moments like "Written In the Sand" (the previous single from Happy Endings) shows off their combined versatility.
The song also makes you really want to go see Old Dominion live, which isn't an urge to repress. "Hotel Key" is the ultimate song for right now.
Did You Know?: Trevor Rosen's wife keeps hotel keys, but the guitarist admits he throws them away without her knowing.
See the Top Songs of 2018, So Far!
Old Dominion, "Hotel Key" Lyrics:
Well, it was down some street we couldn’t even pronounce / We were smoking a little from a half an ounce / Tequila was cheap but the flow we were feeling was real / Neither one of us looking for three little words / Unless those three words were do not disturb / Checkout was supposed to be noon but we slept in till three.
Chorus:
She kept the hotel key, slipped it in her purse I guess / It makes her think of me and that night we left / Our hearts on the sleeves of our clothes all over the floor / We both know we can’t open that door no more / But she kept the hotel key.”
Well, I can still see her on the bed sitting Indian style / With my T-shirt on and a half drunk smile / She talked about Austin and how she’d get back there someday / Had the curtains wide open and a song on my phone / We danced by the TV we never turned on / And wondered would anyone miss us if we ran away / But this isn’t one of those stories that ends up that way.
We left the lights, we left the crowd / We left the world and locked it out / She left a picture in my head / She left a night I can’t forget.