Alberto and Isaac Flores, Matt Oliverio, Jacob Aguirre, Nikea Lopez and Gerardo Carrillo are Candy Blossom. They began working on a pandemic inspired project late 2020 and recently released Candy Blossom Live at the Herberger. The band explains, “The album is a mix of songs that take you from soft arrangements about aging and love to unapologetic anthems about war. Some of it inspired by the events of 2020, and other tracks by past experiences.”
The band starts with the song “Carousel.” They create a warm and fairly melancholy canvas at first with warm string, drums and bass. The guitars do brighten up the song. Once the vocals simmered in I was reminded of Tom Waits. I can’t say the vocalist sounds like Waits but musically something brought to mind the album Alice. The song progresses and widens in scope and intensity. It felt like a song that could work as an opener or a closer. “Autumn” is this sweet and tender song with a good amount of melancholy. The title of the song perfectly encapsulates the feeling you might get. I loved “Sentiment” which sounded a bit like it could be a song in a play. The combination of classical strings and guitar are a nice combo. There are elements which evolve and dissipate as well as multiple vocalists who sound good together. The band continued with “Better” which felt like a good call. This song brings with it a good amount of energy that the album needed at this point. That being said, the sweeping strings still give this song an undercurrent of melancholy. “Divine Bind” is a solid song and the first time I was reminded of the band Arcade Fire. There are some similarities but again something about the music gave it more of a theatrical quality. “Un-American Committee” has its moments but the catchy infectious “While Watching The News” felt like a highlight. Last up is the warm “Cinderella” which is another song that felt tender and heartfelt. It does rise towards the end and feels like a solid send off. Live albums are hard to make. Unlike a studio album there are no overdubs and the sound is more raw. In this case I would say it sounds like a well produced live album. I could make out all the instrumentation although I did sort of miss the sound of an audience. This is a solid release from a very good band. I think fans of some of the aforementioned artists should really enjoy this. Take a listen.
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