Imagine you’re in your mid-to-late thirties with a preschooler at your side and an impending work day breathing down your neck. After fighting your way through your day as best you can, you arrive home to find a package inside your front door. You open it up to find a CD from an artist you’ve never heard of before until that moment. Imagine that, after the preschooler has been put to bed, you decide to make the album you’ve received a part of your wind down routine. You begin to listen as you wash the dishes and prepare yourself for tomorrow’s daily grind. Your ears take notice to the fact that the singer’s lyrics read like a list of breakup chronicles and you wonder to yourself if love is the only subject worth talking about anymore in song.
Soon after that, however, it dawns on you that you are not the audience that this album was made for. You take a step back to think things through objectively and ask yourself the following question: Can you see a crowd of teenage girls knowing every word to these songs and singing along at the top of their lungs at a live show? The answer comes back a resounding YES.
U.K. based singer/songwriter Candy Rose is going for broke with her debut album, A Rollercoaster Love, penning most of the songs on her own as well as producing and financing the release herself. She describes herself as “camera shy,” so you won’t find one photo of her in the CD booklet, nor are there any snapshots found on her MySpace or Facebook pages. A risky move, given that image is damn near everything in the music industry. (FACT: The first video aired on MTV was “Video Killed The Radio Star” by The Buggles. You’re kidding yourself if you think that’s a coincidence.) However, at the end of the day, image will only get you so far. Sonically speaking, this album embraces pop music in all its forms, from dance music for the clubs to post-punk rocking out.
“Stop Talking” gets the album started on a high octane note as Candy lets her unfaithful boo know that it’s over. Don’t be surprised if you see remix support from the dance community in the next few months. “It’s You That I Love” seems like the perfect choice for a single. Just shy of three minutes with a catchy chorus and sampled percussion as a drum loop, Ms. Rose reminisces on love shared and the combination’s a slam dunk. Citing Fall Out Boy as an inspiration, she sets one song aside to let the guitars rip and sing the praises of “Patrick Stump.” Outside of that, look towards the acoustic-led lament of “I Just Miss You” and the revelation expressed in “Tell The World” for engaging song arrangements. Hopefully the combination of social media and the Internet will work to Candy Rose’s advantage. May the artist and audience meet halfway and continue to build from there…
Reviewed By Jason Randall Smith
