ALBUM REVIEW: Spearmint – This Candle Is For You

WIAIWYA Records

Released: 17.11.23

It would be unfair to call Spearmint a 90s throwback, but they do seem to exist in a pre-sub prime crisis reality. The inherent nostalgia to the sonic palette and reference points is evocative of the romance of an affordable, pre-Oligarch London. Spearmint are an archetypically London band – more indebted to the likes of Hefner than the Britpop stuff they often get lumped in with.

It’s this nostalgic mis en scene that is both Spearmint’s biggest strength and weakness – microsong Three More Songs On The Jukebox captures the romance of a night out perfectly succinctly – on the Pet Shop Boys-ish Tell Me About My Sister singer Shirley Lee, remarkably, manages to recall a night out from a quarter-century ago, emphasising the time and place within which these songs appear to be set. Ultimately, as the record feels like a relic of the 20^th Century, and the nostalgia tastes somewhat bittersweet in the context of the age of catastrophe.