Candy Darling are named after Lou Reed’s transgender muse, so it’s perhaps no surprise that their debut single is all brash melodrama. Yet the camp theatrics of the Bristol trio’s grinding electro noir is shot through with malice on ‘Money’, a spurned lover’s defiant stand given edge by the cold-hearted clarity of Emily Breeze’s powerful vocal (reminiscent of Karen O’s), as she proclaims: “Next time I see you I’ll be laughing/and you’ll be shot down with regret”. Her memorable couplets adorn an industrial meld of serrated synth oscillations, distorted glam guitar and piercing snare claps shattering a lazy 4/4 that gives the track an unhurried, peacocking swagger. ‘Money’ is a sleazy, bittersweet egocentric shout-out which, like all the best comebacks, is delivered with a good deal of wit.
Money is out on 1 September
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