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Under the Skylon
Snowstorm STORM025CD
London-based alt-folk band Candidate (Joel Morris, Alex Morris, Ian Painter, Chris White) return to the scene with this, their fourth album, basically a love story set around the Skylon – a futuristic skyscraper built in London in 1951 for the Great Exhibition and demolished soon afterwards.
With great melodies and a rare example of that old-fashioned craft, songwriting, this album is beautiful in its performance, production and conception. Strong vocals from Joel and Alex Morris underpin the tracks and the band are tight yet loose, particularly on the Beta Band-esque Going Outside, while the delicate and emotive Falling Leaves is reminiscent of early Fairport and the use of a mellotron on Another One Down recalls The Beatles. With their strong use of harmonies and the lyrical wordplay of the band this is a worthy successor to 2002's Wicker Man-inspired Nuada, and is one of those albums that grows with you. By the time you reach the end you will be singing the chorus to the brilliant You are Loved.
The band have been mentioned in the same breath as US alt-country acts like Wilco and Granddaddy, and their styles are similar; however Candidate remain English in their outlook and performance and this is their real strength. Definitely an album of the year.
James R Turner - April 2004
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 When I first listened to this album I was rather disappointed. I had spent much of the previous two years playing two previous Candidate albums Nuada and Tiger Flies, which are both, if you like your folk/alt. folk/acoustic led/whatever you call it, excellent. By contrast Under the Skylon seemed rather mundane, even drony in places. The opening track was like a repititious Smiths B-side, "Another One Down", the single release, a routine, if catchy, pop song. But after a few listens I found I couldn't stop playing it... the chorus of "Moving an Oil Rig" grabbed me... the cold truth of "A lifetime from now"... the brass band and sad beauty of "Glass Skylon". Plus countless other highlights. I realised this was a thing of greatness, and that is not a sentence I find easy to write, seeing as how 1 in 3 music reviews tell you the album concerned is the best thing ever. Under the Skylon isn't the best thing ever. But it's better than most of those albums that apparently are.
Brewster Vargas, Chile/Nottingham
Very disappointing and slightly tragic in a grown man dancing to techno sort of a way. Candidate suffer from an inflated sense of their own artistry. This album seems reminiscent of everything, but signifying nothing. Joel Morris' vocals in particular sound like he's singing them into his bathroom mirror. A student folk band trying too hard is a terrible thing, and unfortunately that seems to be what Candidate are becoming.
Gavin Hayes, Stockport | | | | | | |  |
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Folk & Acoustic
