Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel

Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel is the second album by Minnesota-based band Sleeping in the Aviary. Originally released on October 14, 2008, it was re-released on vinyl on July 26, 2012.^[2]

Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel
Studio album by Sleeping in the Aviary
Released	October 14, 2008[1]
Genre	Pop/Rock
Length	45:40
Label	Science of Sound
Sleeping in the Aviary chronology
Oh, This Old Thing? (2007) Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel (2008) Great Vacation! (2010)

Recording and style

Sleeping in the Aviary's frontman, Elliott Kozel, wrote some of the songs on Expensive Vomit in a Cheap Hotel while in a hospital in Colorado waiting to find out if his mom would die (she didn't).^[2] The album was recorded soon after Kozel's mother's hospitalization, as well as a co-worker's brain aneurysm and a friend's drug overdose.^[3] He has since said that he didn't like Expensive Vomit very much and that he thought there were "four good songs" on it,^[2] and the album's style was "a conscious response to Panic! at the Disco’s last album", saying, "They weren’t keeping it real so we thought we’d try to add some flavor."^[4] An article in Free Press Houston noted that Expensive Vomit's music took "a decidedly more folky and weighty approach" than did Sleeping in the Aviary's previous album, Oh, This Old Thing?.^[5]

Reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[6]
Alternative Press	3/5[7]
The Badger Herald	[8]
MSN Music (Expert Witness)	A–[9]
No Ripcord	6/10[10]
Punknews.org	[11]
Three Imaginary Girls	8.5/10[12]

The album received mainly positive reviews; for example, The A.V. Club wrote that it "opens up the band’s tender side amid its lo-fi scars and unruly freak-outs,"^[13] and Katjusa Cisar described it as "a blistering and catchy mix of punk, folk and rock".^[14] Cisar later named the album one of the best Madison releases of 2008.^[15] It was also ranked as the second best Madison album of 2008 by Rich Albertoni in Isthmus^[16] and one of the 10 best "albums you didn't hear" of 2008 by Magnet.^[17] Well-known music critic Robert Christgau awarded the album an A−, later ranking it #43 on his Dean's List for 2008.^[18]

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Write On"	3:05
2.	"Calm Me Down"	3:32
3.	"Gas Mask Blues"	5:05
4.	"Maybe You're the Same"	3:54
5.	"Things Look Good"	2:56
6.	"I'm Old"	2:46
7.	"Everybody's Different, Everybody Dies"	2:42
8.	"You're a Party"	4:11
9.	"Ladybug Death Song"	4:01
10.	"Girl in the Ground"	4:13
11.	"Windshield"	9:15

Personnel

1. Elliott Kozel—vocals, guitar, songwriting
2. Phil Mahlstadt—bass guitar
3. Kyle Sobczak—guitar
4. Celeste Huele—accordion, musical saw
5. Michael Sienkowski—drums