Music Review: Candy Cigarettes Self-Titled

 

by: Kidman J. Williams

This Portland, Oregon one-man band creates a sound that you would swear was being played by a six piece. Candy Cigarettes is headed by the highly talented singer/songwriter Lane Mueller and has earned a lot of praise and love in the highly proclaimed Portland music scene.

The music is everything that you would expect out of Portland. If you haven’t been to Portland well, get your flannel on, jump on the Max to Voodoo Donuts, get some coffee at Stumptown, and pop this album on the headphones and take the funky fortune 500 fast track into Candy Cigarettes’ world.

It isn’t normal to start off a review with the third track on this adventurous collection of work, but MY 45 is THE TRACK.

MY 45 is the obvious radio friendly hit. The song is so catchy that you are going to find your grandmother whistling it while she force feeds you liver-n-onions for dinner. Your Dad will even begrudgingly listen to it in the garage when nobody is around. Even that artless coxcomb “How Bou Dah” girl would bop her dimwitted head up and down on this infectious spellbinding track.

This track is not so candy sweet. When you listen to the lyrics it is about a guy who can’t be with the girl he wants. The song is like hiding a lemon inside an M&M and letting your friend eat it while everyone gets to laugh about it.

The chorus line:

“I want you, but I can’t have you. So I guess I’ll listen to my .45. And if she deceives me baby please leave me, I’ll find another way to die.”

If that gives you an idea?

The rest of the album is a sonic waterslide of adventure taking you through twists and turns that you may not have expected with your tube going so fast that you might go over the edge.

This collection of music is the real deal. Passion bred with true vision and art. Mueller catches your soul and flies you to a place of pure imagination.

Songs like MY 45, and the short but Beach Boys esque Sweet Love, all the way to the snappy The Party’s Almost Over; you will enjoy the unique and familiar sound that this self-titled album brings into your ear drums.