ORIANTHI – Rock Candy

The hugely talented Orianthi is keeping busy and staying creative these days, which is great to see, and her latest LP entitled Rock Candy is a fine entry in the awesome lady’s discography.

That hard and sharp sound of the record suits the material quite nicely, and I love the variety of its content. Energetic rockers containing meaty riffs and tasty solos, vocals that harbor passion and confidence, and gritty, blues-inspired pieces make for a pleasant and entertaining listening experience, and the whole affair is rather concise and focused. Actually, it is only thirty minutes long, so one can hardly accuse it of outstaying its welcome, and the modern-sounding output comes across as a more inspired and heartfelt offering compared to its predecessor. Three of its best and most memorable tunes are the opening salvo of ‘Illuminate (Part 1)’, ‘Light It Up’, and ‘Fire Together’. The latter boasts a chorus that is outright infectious and impossible to shake. Other treats include the emotive and hauntingly beautiful ‘Where Did Your Heart Go?’ and the refreshingly dark ‘Void’. The ballad ‘Living is Like Dying Without You’ is dreadful and fails to capture the imagination while ‘Red Light’ is superfluous and quickly forgotten, but apart from those there is a lot to like and cherish about the disc.

Rock Candy is a well-written, spirited, and tightly executed album with a sense of purpose and identity to it. In other words, I am digging this one.