Album Review: All The Ways You Let Me Down by Candy Hearts

Heads up, you can actually stream the entire album over at Alt Press

It feels like the promotion around the new Candy Hearts album has been non-stop. Maybe it’s just me but the articles, interviews, and profiles seem endless. That is all going to end because the album is actually going to drop on June 10^th and despite my initial hesitancy there is a lot to like about the All The Ways You Let Me Down.

Sitting down with the album I was a little concerned because I’ve not enjoyed a second of the first single and leading track “I Miss You.” It might as well have been a different band with nigh absurd radio hooks that felt like they were ripped from a New Found Glory b-side. Finding out that Chad Gilbert helped compose the track in addition to producing it was not much of a surprise. In the interest of being fair the real problem is that section of the chorus that lends the song its name. It is too much. I wanted it to stop. The song sounds like the writers for My Little Pony got strung out on fun dip and wrote a song. The follow up track suffers from the same general issue, but the lyrics aren’t nearly as saccharine which benefits the song as a whole. Still, these openning tracks may be turnoffs for some listeners.

But that’s where the struggle ends. I'm happy to say that the rest of the album is pretty damned good. There are a couple of weird spots like fluttery guitar tones on “The One to Get Me Out,” but when the buzzing guitars come in the band just rocks it out. On through the rest of the album the band settles into a strong pop punk style with maybe the most 90s-influence since Ripped Up Jeans & Silly Dreams. There is little doubt that All The Ways You Let Me Down is a rock album, and even the poppy alt rock sounds roll along rather nicely. After a few listens I ended liking “Fool’s Gold” way more than I initially thought and “Brooklyn Bridge” is probably one of the band’s best all-time songs. “Brooklyn Bridge” almost evokes an Avril Lavigne song in its hook, but fortunately uses its powers for good. For as weak as the album starts it finds a great rhythm with superb pacing right to the end. The band also delivers with a tight rhythm section and some truly fun lead guitar parts. As much as I do (and will) rail against the vocal production the music sounds great. There is a lot more sonic texture to the song with some clever flourishes throughout the album.

Now I get to rail against something else. I had one big complaint on what was otherwise Candy Hearts’ best release The Best Ways to Disappear. Chad Gilbert should not be allowed to produce vocals, or at least Mariel’s vocals. It was bad on the EP and it is far worse on All The Ways You Let Me Down. Let me be clear about one thing; Mariel's vocals are a big part of Candy Heart's success, and there is no reason to fix something that isn't broken. Anytime the song gets loud or hits a chorus it sounds like there are half a dozen robot Mariel’s reading song lyrics into a microphone. At times you can hear Mariel overdubbed with Mariel with more Mariels singer backup. The heavy and clumsy use of double-(triple-, quadruple)tracking is absurd, insulting to the band, and makes no damned sense. This is totally my opinion because clearly the band has no issue. It does leave me wanting to hear the songs live in hopes of escaping the terrible vocal production, so maybe the vocal doubling is strategy to encourage kids to come to shows. 

Wow, that was a long paragraph that I wrote just for me and I never even talked about the lyrical content. I’ve always enjoyed Mariel’s song writing abilities. She has an enviable ability to write unapologetically girly songs that are so good at transcending gender lines that I feel like an ass even writing this sentence. Her lyrics are presented in an honest, often clever manner that can engage most any audience. There is no hiding and no rancor in her words, just he truthful perspective. This all carries over to her vocals which echo some of the great femal-fronted indie rockers of the 90s while sounding perfectly comfortable in the modern pop-punk scene.