Justice Hill is cooler than ever on Cooler by the Lake

Justice Hill knows there are no shortcuts in making music that feels effortless. The Michigan-born Chicago multi-instrumentalist refined his skills through study at Berklee College of Music, untold hours of practice, and frequent gigging. He’s known to play in unorthodox settings (community jam sessions, burlesque performances), and last year he headlined the Green Mill’s famed weekly variety show, the Paper Machete. The music on Hill’s 2021 debut full-length, Room With a View, sounds breezy, but it emerged from a labored process; after completing the first version of the album, he scrapped several finished recordings and rewrote half the material from scratch. On his brand-new sophomore album, Cooler by the Lake, he’s more self-assured. As Hill told Schiller Park newspaper People & Places in April, he tried to “set the table a certain way so people can be surprised by the meal.” Lead single “Thank You Hate Me” is a perfect slice of midwest soul. Saxophonist Brian Seyler echoes the vocal melody, as though Hill’s lovesick feelings can’t be contained by just one person, and the drum groove uses a snare hit on count four that pops like bubblegum. “Rain” begins as a mournful multitracked choral piece, and then the clouds burst over thunderous tom rolls and a saxophone solo flashes like lightning—imagine Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” written for a Lake Michigan storm.

Hill also expands his menu to include more diverse fare. The ballad “Outta Sight” feels more Linkin Park than Lincoln Park; it’s powered by Seyler’s sax buzzes and Bill Kidera’s guitar surges as Hill’s sonorous voice echoes in urgent harmonies stacked ten feet tall. “Common Cold” builds to a four-on-the-floor pattern that reflects the sound of classic Chicago house. With the historic news of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Prevost being elected the first American pope, the eyes of the world have been fixed on the city’s culture. In my opinion, artists such as Hill are more worthy of that spotlight than Malört or dibs. Even if the future Pope Leo XIV has never heard of Schubas, it really is cooler by the lake.

Originally published in Chicago Reader.