The Legacy label keeps up its reissue catalog with this interesting item from the Strangeloves, I Want Candy.
The title cut, "I Want Candy", which took up most of the Strangeloves brief glimpse of fame, is probably better known by today's rockers as done by Britons Bow Wow Wow, during those "flashback 80's" lunches that are all the rage. But, to this critic's ear, nearly all the songs which appear here - covering 2 album's worth of materials, as well as some singles - sound identical.
That's what simultaneously makes I Want Candy good and bad. "I Want Candy" sounds like their cover of "Willie and the Hand Jive", which the trio then play with the words (but not the music) to produce "No Jive". In the early 60's tradition of doing many covers, the Stones "Satisfaction" gets identical treatment. Even their original of "Hang On Sloopy" (later taken to #1 by their friends the McCoys) even sounds - well, the same. The up side is that it does sound like a garage band that you got for a party, who could play any song - in the same "style" in which they were hired.
The Strangeloves' history didn't end in the 1960's. More than ten years after their last recording, Richard Gottehrer teamed up with Seymour Stein in the formation of Sire Records, later producing works for Blondie and the Go Go's.
This one's interesting for a small listen, and it is nice to see 1960's artists getting reissued - Sony/Legacy deserves extra kudos for going through the time and trouble - but if you've heard "I Want Candy", you've probably got the idea for the album I Want Candy.
