The Chelsea Hotel#3: Les Paul’s (The Paul’s) Deliver a Sonic Love Letter to Rock History

Les Paul’s (The Paul’s) — the celebrated collaborative project between Paul Robert Thomas and Paul Odiase — return with their 25th studio release, The Chelsea Hotel#3, an album that is as much a cultural document as it is a collection of songs. For more than two decades, the duo have been chroniclers of rock’s romantic underbelly, weaving vivid lyrical portraits into alt-rock soundscapes that feel both intimate and cinematic.

The new record, released 18 August 2025, is the third chapter in their acclaimed Chelsea Hotel series — a musical anthology inspired by one of New York’s most mythologized landmarks. Over the decades, the Chelsea Hotel has served as both a sanctuary and a crucible for some of the most brilliant, troubled, and uncompromising figures in music, literature, art, and film. It is a place where genius and chaos often shared the same narrow hallway.

For lyricist and producer Paul Robert Thomas, the seeds of this album were sown during a recent 6,000-mile journey to the Chelsea itself. “I’d read about it for years,” he says. “I knew the stories, I knew the legends — but being there, even in its current, renovated state, is something else entirely.”

The Chelsea Hotel of today is not the wild, paint-splattered boarding house it once was. Following extensive refurbishments, the walls are cleaner, the air less heavy with the perfume of cigarettes and turpentine. But some things endure: the weathered furniture, the historic artworks collected by legendary manager Stanley Bard in lieu of rent, the quiet hum of stories that still seem to echo through the corridors.

Staying in nearby Manhattan before visiting, Thomas was struck by the contrast. At the sleek New York Palace Hotel, suited executives sipped Starbucks on their way to meetings. Uptown efficiency. But step into the Chelsea’s neighborhood and the scene shifts: subway entrances guarded by spectral figures of another kind, locals with faces carved by hard living. “It’s a place where the edges of society still meet,” Thomas reflects.

Although the hotel was fully booked for that final night in New York, the visit left an indelible mark. The desk clerk, well-versed in the building’s history, spoke proudly of its place in the city’s cultural DNA.

Across their three Chelsea Hotel albums, Les Paul’s have sung about a who’s-who of artistic defiance and brilliance. The first volume, The Chelsea Hotel#1, paid homage to icons like Leonard Cohen, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, and Brian Jones.

The follow-up, The Chelsea Hotel#2, shifted the focus to Patti Smith, Robbie Robertson, Madonna, Joan Baez, Marianne Faithfull, Joni Mitchell, Edie Sedgwick, and Iggy Pop — each figure brought to life through Thomas’s sharply etched lyrics and Odiase’s richly textured arrangements.

With The Chelsea Hotel#3, the lens narrows to a different constellation of characters: playwright Sam Shepard, raconteur Quentin Crisp, hotelier Stanley Bard, chanteuse Nico, maverick filmmaker Dennis Hopper, poet Dylan Thomas, silver screen legend Bette Davis, novelist Thomas Wolfe, and the spectral tale of “5th Floor Mary,” whose ghost is said to roam the hotel’s upper reaches.

From the moment the opening notes of “Stanley Bard” unfurl, you feel the spirit of the man who safeguarded the Chelsea’s unconventional soul for decades. The track moves with a funky warmth that mirrors Bard’s open-door policy for artists, regardless of their ability to pay.

“Chelsea on My Mind” captures the hazy magnetism of the building — a place where creative sparks and human frailty coexist in equal measure. In “Sam Shepard”, the music takes on a buzzy Americana lilt, conjuring the restless playwright’s search for truth in the American landscape.

The cinematic sweep of “Dennis Hopper” shifts between brooding basslines and bursts of guitar, echoing the actor’s combustible energy both on-screen and off. “Quentin Crisp”, by contrast, is a witty, almost theatrical vignette — a nod to the raconteur’s unapologetic flamboyance.

Then there’s “Nico”, with a gritty arrangement that mirrors the German singer’s enigmatic persona. The soulful poetic gravitas of “Dylan Thomas – Room 205” evokes the Welsh bard’s whiskey-soaked nights and aching verse, while “Bette Davis – Room 126 (Whatever Happened to Baby Jane)” sways with the glamour and steel of a woman who refused to be typecast. “Thomas Wolfe – Room 829” rises like one of Wolfe’s sweeping narratives, full of yearning and grandeur. The closing track, “The Ghost of 5th Floor Mary”, leaves listeners with a shiver, its spectral chords and deeply resonating vocals fading into silence.

Musically, The Chelsea Hotel#3 is gritty, organic, and immersive. Odiase’s arrangements balance shadow and light, allowing Thomas’s lyrics to unfurl like pages torn from a well-worn notebook. The alt-rock backbone is there — unvarnished guitar tones, unhurried rhythms — but layered with subtleties that reward repeat listens: a sudden chord change, a ghostly harmony, a line that lands differently the second time you hear it.

It’s a sound that feels lived-in, like the hotel itself. These are not pristine, airbrushed portraits; they are scuffed at the edges, textured with the imperfections that make a place — or a person — unforgettable.

While the Chelsea Hotel’s heyday may be behind it, Les Paul’s are not interested in mere nostalgia. Instead, The Chelsea Hotel#3 serves as a bridge between eras. It reminds us that these stories still matter, that the artists who once haunted its halls continue to inspire, caution, and provoke.

“The Chelsea wasn’t just a building,” Thomas says. “It was a state of mind — a gathering place for people who didn’t fit anywhere else. And in that sense, its spirit is still alive, even if the lift Leonard met Janis in has been replaced.”

With the release of this latest instalment, the Chelsea Hotel trilogy forms a panoramic mural of countercultural history:

The Chelsea Hotel#1 — for fans of Cohen, Joplin, Dylan, Hendrix, Morrison, Reed, Bowie, Warhol, and Jones.
The Chelsea Hotel#2 — for fans of Smith, Robertson, Madonna, Baez, Faithfull, Mitchell, Sedgwick, and Pop.
The Chelsea Hotel#3 — for fans of Shepard, Crisp, Bard, Nico, Hopper, Thomas, Davis, Wolfe, and the ghost of Mary.

Each album stands alone, but together they create a layered, multi-perspective portrait of a place where art and life collided with combustible intensity.

With 25 albums now to their name, Les Paul’s (The Paul’s) have built a catalogue that defies easy categorization. They are chroniclers, musical historians, and storytellers who know that the best songs are often about more than melody — they are about people, places, and the emotional fingerprints they leave behind.

The Chelsea Hotel#3 is not just a tribute; it is an act of preservation, capturing the fading echoes of an era before they are drowned out by the noise of the present. It is, in every sense, a labour of love — and a reminder that even in its gentrified form, the Chelsea Hotel still has stories to tell.

The Chelsea Hotel#3 will be available in all download stores on 18 August 2025. For more on the Chelsea Hotel albums and the stories behind the songs, visit www.paullyrics.com.