Album Review: Mice Parade - Candela

Album Rating: B

For a globetrotter's soundtrack, Candela sure does have a sense of emotional unity. It's best expressed earlier in the album, between the atmospheric rumblings of "Listen Here Glide Dear" and the serenity of "The Chill House." The emotions are far-reaching, but perfectly fit the mood of Mice Parade's latest album, for the experience is a journey into what culturally diverse indie can make its listeners feel.

As for me, I get nostalgic at the shoegaze-tinged licks that comprise "This River Has a Tide." Towards what, I'm not quite sure - maybe long-lost memories or events I haven't even experienced myself. But Candela is interactive, and this is how it conveys these otherwise unfamiliar emotions. Through simple acoustic strums or airy guitar leads, or from wispy vocals accompanied by strong atmospheric backbone, the album illustrates moments its fanbase has yet to experience. I see it as a slideshow, a collection of pictures of places I hope to see one day. This sense of adventure throughout the album proves Mice Parade is eager to push the envelope.

Candela is based on extensively varied songwriting, and most times Mice Parade is just fine with its normal instruments. But the album's second half experiments too much, with salsa melodies and jarring vocals thrown in haphazardly. The band's experimentation is admirable, but the process comes across more as novelty-based exploration than anything else. Weird instruments don't equal innovation, as much as "Las Gentes Interesantes" would have us believe: the forced moments just make us miss the emotional intuition of the album's first half.

The overly quirky instrumental choices stem from Mice Parade's attempt to channel many different global ideas into the record. Had the group stuck with the ambitious enormity of "Currents," with its frolicking guitar riffs and sporadic drum parts, then Candela would be the work of art it really wants to be.

Tracklist:

1. Listen Hear Glide Dear
2. Currents
3. This River Has A Tide
4. Pretending
5. The Chill House
6. Candela
7. Look See Dream Me
8. Las Gentes Interesantes
9. Contessa
10. Warm Hand In Mine

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