Occasionally the description of a song sounds so outlandish it’s hard to believe it could ever be pulled off successfully. Amanda Stone‘s new single “Candy Baby” is a fusion of garage-rock, classic doo-wop girl groups, modern pop percussion and a little dash of squelching bass. One would assume those disparate influences could never fit together but, incredibly, it works excessively well.
This blending of styles should come as no surprise as Stone has proven to be a bit of a shapeshifter. Her prior undertaking Baby Brains was a crunchy garage-rock outfit that was put on pause in order to pursue a more diverse set of sounds as Amanda Stone. Her first single, “She’s Foolin’ You” was a marked style departure that was much gentler in nature and started to show signs of plenty of new instrumentation coming into the fold. The followup, “I Want You,” is a saccharine sweet doo-wop throwback, complete with bouncy handclaps, whispery vocal bridge and Marilyn Monroe artwork. With “Candy Baby” she takes the divergence explorations even further by turning that innocent doo-wop vibe into something sinister, gracefully fusing together those disparate elements and topping it off with some dominatrix artwork. Generally, remarking on the visual appeal of a musical artist would be contributing to a longstanding misogyny problem but the characters here are clearly an intentional part of the total delivery.
The whole of Stone’s body of work may just be three singles at this time but there’s clearly a metamorphosis happening over time. Having the opportunity to watch an artist change dramatically with each new offering while maintaining aspects of the previous release is a fascinating act to behold. “Candy Baby” is an enjoyable banger for the summer but there’s no telling what the next track will sound like. We’ll just have to stay tuned in to find out.