After exercising their demons with the brilliant tour de force of Dogman, King's X returned two years later and dropped follow-up Ear Candy to little critical fanfare and what could only have been a disappointing commercial performance after such a return to a form for the group. Unluckily sandwiched between two masterful releases, Ear Candy doesn't seem to have inspired much fond remembrance next to classics like Gretchen... or Faith Hope Love and it after a revisit it seems like an album being pulled in two different directions at once - the trio was clearly keen to experiment more with heavier compositions, but a lot of the material on this disc seems more... restrained, or at least lighter than you'd expect. The tone is more psychedelic than metallic and the album is much closer on the King's X tone continuum™ to Groove Machine and Please Come Home... than to their first four albums.
Things start off alright enough with "The Train" and "(Thinking and Wondering) What I'm Gonna Do" providing the usual balance between rock and ballad before "Sometime" and "A Box" really kick the record into gear. Ear Candy features a lot more dUg than we usually get ("Pictures", "Fathers") and at times feels more like a Poundhound record than a fully-fledged King's X one, but all of them are highlights. Truthfully the only real clunkers to be found here are the ballads: "Lies in the Sand (The Ballad of...)" noticeably drags its feet as Ty croaks out some less than captivating lyrics, and "Life Going By" reminds me of a weaker version of "Silent Wind". The bizarre "American Cheese (Jerry's Pianto)" is the most interesting of the lot thanks to Jerry's lead vocals, similar to "Six Broken Soldiers".
I find it hard to say a lot about this album because it just seems so level in quality (kind of a rarity for these guys). There are good songs, but nothing you'll want to buy the album just to hear. There are bad songs, but none of them are a complete disaster, just... boring. Ear Candy at the end of the day is just too laid back for it's own good and fails to deliver anything truly memorable and is definitely the least essential listening experience this band has created - you really are not missing out on anything by skipping this.
C
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