Review Summary: Kandle's debut EP isn't the most original thing out there, but some great songs, a haunting atmosphere and her beautiful voice more than make up for it.
Kandle Osbourne, a Canadian musician formerly a guitarist for the band The Blue Violets and daughter of 54-40 frontman Neil Osbourne, released her debut solo EP in 2012, self-titled "Kandle". With some stomping drums, twanging guitar and fuzzed-out vocals, "Kandle" in many ways sounds straight-up like outlaw blues music; the perfect stuff for driving alone through the desert in if you know what I mean. This might pigeonhole it a bit and maybe lose it a bit of indie cred, and it's true that it's not the most original debut I've ever heard, but "Kandle" has way more positive things to offer than negative ones.
For one, the musicianship is awesome. Kandle is a great singer with a beautiful voice, exactly what you'd expect from a tiny blonde pixie of a girl, and it's cool to hear someone actually just honestly singing to this style music without resorting to either Joplin-esque wailing or over-the-top Adele style crooning. The guitar work is excellent as well, being both twangy, melodic and experimental when it needs to be, much of it provided by Sam Goldberg of Broken Social Scene fame (although here in Canada, pretty much everybody is of Broken Social Scene fame).
The production, handled by Kandle's father, is also nice and spacey, drenched in reverb. It really expands the songs out and creates a nice, haunting sort of atmosphere that goes well with the music. Some may find it irritating that Kandle's voice is always through some sort of filter, but I like it; it makes her sound more distant and from that oddly captivating.
The songs themselves are pretty great. They do get somewhat repetitive, disappointing especially for just a 6 song EP, but they're all well written enough to pretty much make up for it.
"Know My Name" features some great lyrics about a love that won't leave the speaker alone; "I thought I told you not to lie, I thought I told you not to lie, I thought I told you goodbye" is probably my favourite (I also love the fact that the stanza's are in 3 lines as opposed to the traditional 4). The harmonized vocal and guitar leads are also a thing of beauty.
"Knew You'd Never" follows and covers much of the same territory. "Not Listening" features some really excellent, ambient guitar work as well as a great harmonized vocal with both parts by Kandle. More synchronized vocal and guitar leads appear to great effect again.
"All That I Need" is a softer, acoustic ballad with a beautifully expressive vocal, perfectly capturing the romantic longing of the lyrics. "Small" follows and in an odd contrast is again about a girl trying to get away from a guy, the exact opposite of the previous song. It's sort of a strange inconsistency, and given that the same concept was covered better in "Know My Name" it's a little disappointing, but this track benefits from being the bluesiest track on the album thanks to the twangy guitar, brief banjo interlude and also has some great male backing vocals, the only time the album this occurs.
Ending it all is a cover of "Play With Fire", an early, mostly forgotten classic by The Rolling Stones. Kandle reimagines it as a more swing-based folk-rock song with some Byrds-esque jangly guitar and swirling organ. The song has a beautiful melody and Kandle really brings it out, reminding me of what a great song it was to begin with and how sad it is that it's a more minor Stones single. It's a great choice for a cover and one of the coolest tracks on the EP.
All in all, "Kandle" is definitely not the most original EP I've ever heard and has trouble keeping things interesting even within itself, but it has some great lyrics and guitar work, excellent, haunting vocals from Kandle and just an overall cool sound, even if it is a sound I've heard before. It's a great debut from Kandle that more than anything just makes me look forward to what she follows up with as it presents her with enough potential to be a great musician once she refines herself.
