A whole lot of songs about falling in love. Not as much about falling in love when people around you are all too eager to tell you that no, that’s wrong, you’re just an idiot. “Candy Smoking” by Romattic falls into that second category.
On the surface, it is an alt-rock love song about a guy who is unquestionably all in love with a woman who just doesn’t quite reciprocate the love. Those around him can see it; he can see it; this would be where he leaves. He does not in fact leave.
And it is in this area that “Candy Smoking” begins to reveal itself as infinitely more compelling than its superficial subject matter might imply. Because the song is not, in truth, nearly as invested in romantic devotion as something heroic or noble as it might first appear. Instead, it perceives the contemporary relationship as something you’re supposed to have: another pointed reminder that everyone else seems to have what you don’t. Singlehood has become a defeat.
This makes the attempts to force the narrator to let go even more pathetic and very relatable as he’s effectively admitting the whole dilemma, while still perpetuating it. This isn’t a guy who fell prey to a mysterious, untraceable femme fatale; he’s been given the warning label. He has read it, and he’s decided to buy the candy.
This production drives home that chaotic paradox. Romattic races forward with thundering drums, upbeat guitar riffs, rough electronic timbres and processed vocals, creating a song that feels far more victorious than it has any right to be. It’s catchier, louder and more livid than the subject matter and makes a welcome contrast to its theme of emotional reliance.
Much of the band’s wider sound takes inspiration from alt-pop, alt-rock and nostalgic ’80s and ’90s textures, with a smattering of classic-rock influence added into the attic that’s becoming increasingly wild. This blending together of influences is what makes “Candy Smoking” seem less like a carefully curated nostalgia project and more like a modern-day band just rummaging through the recording archives and asking, “What if we did this?” By that metric, it’s very reminiscent of Arctic Monkeys.
“Candy Smoking” simply succeeds in the end because it gets the fact that romantic desperation can be pretty damn stupid, and yet still uncommonly real. Because you know something’s up, and you do it anyway. And here, underneath the guitars and the roar, is a rather unattractive query the song leaves behind: what proportion of what we refer to as love is really love, and what proportion is just plain fear?
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
