October Surprise: Candy Coffins' Once Do It With Feeling - Stereo Embers Magazine Stereo Embers Magazine

Written by: Alex Green

On the heels of their promising Somehow Misplaced EP, Candy Coffins check in with a full-length album that, in the waning months of 2022, might very well be one of the year’s best.

A ten-track effort that brings to mind the work of Red Rockers, The Call and The Cure, Candy Coffins’ sonic attack is a dark and layered affair. Singer Jame Lathren’s delivery brings to mind a young, tough Robert Smith by way of Springsteen’s Greetings From Asbury Park or The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn and his ability to pilot the ship with such melodic aplomb is truly something to behold.

The South Carolina band’s compositions are focused and textured and Once Do It With Feeling is a stirring song-cycle about the lifespan of romantic love, chronicling both its chemical and frenzied beginning and its inevitable messy demise.

What goes on in between?

The usual: hope, betrayal, depression, optimism, reconstruction, life-force depletion and endless nights alone in dark rooms.

Numbers like “Tangled Up In Teacups” and “French Exit” detail the trajectory of a capsizing romance and the album closing “Peel Off The Stars” is either the most hopeful thing you’ve ever heard or its exact opposite.

Your call.

Either way, it’s a stunning, almost novelistic album closer.

And this is a rather stunning band.