July 17, 2001

David Candy : Play Power

Ex-Make Up dude's hippy-lounge mistake

3 / 10 How pretentious do you have to be to make a record that pretends to be pretentious? Ask notoriously immodest Make Up shrieker Ian Svenonius, who appears here as alter ego David Candy, a dreamily intense idiot-poet fond of velvet jackets and exotic cookery. 'Play Power' is sort of a joke - a chance for Svenonius to ditch testimonial gospel-rock in favour of billowy '60s-flavoured lounge pop, while lampooning bargain bin retro-psychedelic crooners - but you feel he's taking it too seriously.

Our narrator seductively whispers, "Hi, I'm David Candy/ Don't worry, I will look after you/I understand you..." over cheesily floral Bacharach-lite in
the promisingly absurd 'Incomprehensibly Yours', but it quickly becomes apparent that Svenonius was so busy congratulating himself on being clever that he forgot to include any tunes. Of the album's seven songs, three are covers from film scores ('Listen To The Music' from Wild In The Streets, 'Bad Bad Boy' from Privilege, 'Lullaby' from Rosemary's Baby), and two are little more
than over-long bad jokes. In 'Redfuchsiatamborine-amp;gravel', Svenonius ruminates on Suprematist art and dessert recipes. The 19-minute 'Diary Of A Genius' is a feeble satire of Jim Morrison's stoner babble on 'American Prayer'.

'Play Power' is neither funny nor smart enough to pull off Svenonius' smug intention to make a record so bad that, like Xanadu or hair metal, it would actually be great. It's just bad.

April Long