Hotel Valentine is Cibo Matto's first release in 15 years. Yuka Honda (keyboards, samples) and Miho Hatori (vocals) have been busy with solo albums, production work, and separate collaborations in the meantime, and this reunion combines their collective experience into something familiar and nostalgic but not completely retro. While the playful genre-blurring that was the band's signature in the '90s is still present, there's also noticeable development in their songwriting. Based on a concept that revolves around a ghost living in a haunted hotel, Hotel Valentine's murky storyline is a good creative vehicle for this eccentric duo. Alternating between sweet vocals and her whimsical semi-rap delivery, Hatori tells the tale of a female ghost who eats, swims, smokes, and interacts with guests. The story isn't linear or easy to follow, but it does provide moments of humor, metaphor, and mystery. The overall mood is equally mercurial. Rippling dance grooves give way to abstract atmospheric tracks that swirl trip hop, electro-pop, and jazz and rock samples to create woozy environments with unpredictable tempo shifts.