Album Review: The Candle Thieves – Happiness Blues EP
The Candle Thieves are a duo from Peterborough that I’ve just discovered but from the looks of it, if you haven’t heard of them, you will soon. Scott McEwan and the unusually named Glockenshiels will be heading out on the road as support for Badly Drawn Boy next month.
In the folk/anti-folk revival of the last 2 years, there are a lot of bands that have glockenspiel in their arsenal, but check out this list of instrument the Candle Thieves list on their MySpace: acoustic guitar, glockenspiel, Casio keyboard, piano, harmonica, melodica, snare and shaker. Pretty talented pair of blokes. They might look like two geeky bespectacled dudes, but they make some great twee pop. Check out the whimsical video for the EP track ‘The Sunshine Song’ below: I haven’t heard anything so sunny since Noah and the Whale‘s ’5 Years’ Time’.
The rest of the EP is just as beautiful. ‘Annabelle’s Song’ is a soft, gentle, almost nursery rhyme song with gorgeous piano and glock effects and is certainly worthy of being claimed as ‘my song’ by any girl who is fortunate to have been named Annabelle by her parents. ‘Balloon #2′, cut from a similar mold as ‘Annabelle’, features McEwan’s fragile yet haunting vocals. It’s enough to make one cry. ‘Paper Aeroplanes’ may have a simple melody and lack of any real lyrics, but it beats out ‘Fireflies’ by Owl City by miles. I’m pretty bummed now that I didn’t bother to see David Gray or the Scissor Sisters this year in America because I probably would have been able to see the Candle Thieves perform. Hopefully soon I’ll get another chance and see them perform these brilliant songs live.
The Candle Thieves’ ‘Happiness Blues’ EP is now available from Carnival Town Records.
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