American psychedelia merges with stadium pop to create agreeable 'dreamrock' template
6/10
Where to start with Candidate, a band whose name suggests political contention, Joy Division or a pun on 'candy' and 'date'. After a promising introduction served up by the recent hook-filled single and album-opener, April Again, and frenetic indie-plus sentiments of the following Brutal, I had already decided that, by calling yourselves Candidate along with a handful of other bands, the music would be so different as to blow the other, erm, candidates away by being unique, ground-breaking, special etc. Sadly with yet another Brooklyn band, this is not the case and I have been proven premature in my assumptions. As for the album's title, well....
On the other hand, there are moments of promise throughout the dozen tracks and the band's mission statement ('to purvey Dreamrock to planet Earth') isn't quite as far-fetched after all. Essentially, Candidate's make up is comprised of wide-eyed pop a la The Script (stick with me here), bluesy psychedelic rock such as Primal Scream or The Church (in particular on Low Life and Everything For Us and even pomp-rock by the likes of Muse when they're being wistful (check The Great Within - it's not as crazy a notion if you imagine the usual Bellamy histrionics instead of singer Cedric Brookman's).
However, the ordinary songs are plenty - A Place For My Soul is rousing enough bluster, yet loses its way somewhere near the end in a cacophony of backward beats and synths, NYC hardly evokes the toils, the troubles, the wonders and the spectacle of the iconic American city and Winter Thoughts sounds like someone being savagely attacked in a snowdrift.
After several listens to the entire album, the good songs outweigh the bad for the most part, making Candidate's rather discordant assemblage a must-hear, rather than a must-have.
6/10
On the other hand, there are moments of promise throughout the dozen tracks and the band's mission statement ('to purvey Dreamrock to planet Earth') isn't quite as far-fetched after all. Essentially, Candidate's make up is comprised of wide-eyed pop a la The Script (stick with me here), bluesy psychedelic rock such as Primal Scream or The Church (in particular on Low Life and Everything For Us and even pomp-rock by the likes of Muse when they're being wistful (check The Great Within - it's not as crazy a notion if you imagine the usual Bellamy histrionics instead of singer Cedric Brookman's).
However, the ordinary songs are plenty - A Place For My Soul is rousing enough bluster, yet loses its way somewhere near the end in a cacophony of backward beats and synths, NYC hardly evokes the toils, the troubles, the wonders and the spectacle of the iconic American city and Winter Thoughts sounds like someone being savagely attacked in a snowdrift.
After several listens to the entire album, the good songs outweigh the bad for the most part, making Candidate's rather discordant assemblage a must-hear, rather than a must-have.