When you take a first listen to The Candles album “Matter+Spirit” you might be lead into thinking that you are hearing a Southern or a West Coast band inspired by Flying Burrito Brothers or American Beauty/Workingman’s Dead Grateful Dead. Anyway, something firmly rooted in the early Seventies singer/songwriter country rock.
It turns out that The Candles mailman, Josh Latanzzi, is from New York. So is his band. After all, the sometimes they turn into Norah Jones’ backing band, who returns the favor by doing backing vocals here on “Move Along”. And also, although I haven’t had the chance to listen to their first two albums, it is said that they were more oriented towards a jangly version of power pop (not a bad thing in my book).
So what do we get here? It is obvious that Latanzzi is a very talented and skillful guy with a voice completely with ease with this material. As if he played this kind of stuff all his life somewhere on the porch in the South (the acoustic “Followed”), or deep in the woody part of the Laurel Canyon (plugged in “Lost My Driving Wheel”).
It is also obvious that The Candles as the band are at a complete ease with this material - as if you would wake them up in the middle of the night they wouldn’t b able to miss-play a single note. That is what consistent touring will do for you.
But it is not all about being accomplished and professional musicians - Latanzzi’s material is good enough to shine through no matter what. Try “Blue Skies and Sun” and “Sunburned”, the most outstanding tracks here. You immediately get the sense that Latanzzi and his band fully feel this music and that they are not doing it because it is just another fad that is taking us back in time. A release worth hearing. More than once. The Candles are burning brightly while playing their music lightly.
