Candidate - Under The Skylon

  by Anthony Dhanendran

published: 28 / 3 / 2004

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Candidate’s fourth album, ‘Under The Skylon’, following on from 2002’s pretty and considered ‘Nuada’, sees the band in a reflective mood. That is to say, they’re always in a reflective mood, but this time around what’s being reflected is their musical heritage. Harking back to various times in the recent past of popular music, it is engaging and, although seemingly distant at first, it rewards repeated listening. Opener ‘Going Outside’ could have been an offcut from 'The Wicker Man'-influenced ‘Nuada’, but to call it that would be to do it an injustice. The song that follows it, ‘Garden’, is as much like a Smiths/Bert Jansch crossover as is possible to imagine, containing all the melodic sensibilities of Morrissey at his best along with a wise folk sensibility. The sleevenotes helpfully point out that the Skylon of the title “was a complex skyscraping structure painstakingly built on London’s South Bank as part of the Festival of Britain in 1951. It was demolished soon after, leaving no evidence of its existence except photographs.” It seems to be connected to the idea of futures and pasts, and what could have been. The album often harks back to its influences, but they’re always twisted in some way – such as on ‘Nothing Between Us But Sky’ – which sounds like a folk tune performed by Mike and The Mechanics (in a good way, though, honestly). ‘Another One Down’ could be a lost piece by the Blur of a couple of years ago, but that could be just clutching at straws. Nevertheless, it’s the most electronic-sounding song on the album. Mostly, the influences tend to manifest themselves in the small details of the music – after a while it becomes clear that, more than just being another album in the vein of their previous records, ‘Under The Skylon’ is a trip down memory lane in more ways than one. This is an album by a band who are in control of their music. Although it lacks the set-piece tunes of the previous two albums, it is something that grows in enjoyment with every listen, and the nuances, which surface with familiarity, are what make it worth coming back for.

Track Listing:-

1 May 4th 1951
2 Going Outside
3 Garden
4 Moving An Oil Rig
5 Nothing Between Us But Sky
6 Fatal Dose
7 Mountain Snow
8 Falling Leaves
9 A Lifetime From Now
10 Another One Down
11 Glass Skylon
12 You Are Loved
13 Lay Me On The Line

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