Candidates

Confident and without a trace of self-doubt, Cambridge, ON's the Candidates embrace the mod moniker as easily as they live it. Their promising debut album sports biting chops and hooks that gel with their slick suits and carefully coifed haircuts. Taking as much care with their music as with their style, Meet the Candidates is a polished, solid debut from a group that is nowhere nearly as retro-focussed as they might be. Yes, there are the obvious references to the Jam, early Who, the Small Faces and the Kinks, but such comparisons are inevitable in a band that is as proudly mod as the Candidates. The sound, however, is not rooted in the past. Like so many bands that draw on easily identifiable reference points of the past, they adopt a distinctly modern and forward-looking sound that comes across more to the ear than any windmill guitar imitations. The Candidates have managed to form a solid and musically capable identity that doesn't detract from their influences.