Review: Candice Night – Sea Glass

earMUSIC (May 25^th, 2025)

Reviewer – David Pearce

‘Sea Glass’ is the new album from Candice Night who is most familiar to many as the voice and woodwind player for folk rock band Blackmore’s Night. She has also toured regularly with Rainbow as a backing vocalist, but this album is her third solo work, a full ten years after her sophomore outing ‘Starlight Starbright’.

‘Sea Glass’ features nine new compositions and a cover of ‘Nature Boy’ and is an album that reflects on the way that we grow as people through love, loss and the changes that age and experience bring.

Title track ‘Sea Glass’ is a gorgeous meditation on the beauty of youth and the way that the pieces of yourself come back and fit together to create a different, more experienced but equally beautiful you. Candice’s voice is simply gorgeous as it delivers an opening song that swoops and soars and really makes you think about your own experiences. The sound of the tide at the beginning and end of the track gives it a feeling of completeness.

The next track ‘Unsung Hero (She’ll Never Tell)’ shows off her folk-rock background with a song that introduces us to a kind of universal woman. The strength of the woman in a world that she has to fight against at times has excellent lyrics once again and shows what a superb lyricist she is. It’s incredibly catchy and features a vocal that just takes you by surprise with its beauty at times.

‘Line Between’ is about the death of a close relative that just takes your breath away. It’s incredibly sad but suffused with love and is a fitting tribute to that special person that you have lost. What it does is tell the story of a life lived fully and beautifully, in the line between the dates on their headstone, and it will make anyone who listens to it incredibly emotional.

‘Angel and Jezebel’ appears on the album, this time in the rock version of the song. It’s a proper country song at heart with a great guitar backing that shows Candice’s versatility.

‘Promise Me’ returns to the more reflective sound of the first three songs and is a message to her children to keep facing life with bravery and love. Once again, the depth of the lyrics really hits home, and I thought about my own children while listening to this. When her own children started singing, their contribution just puts the icing on the cake. This is the sound of hard-won experience but it’s the sound of pure love and hope.

The second half of the album starts with ‘Dark Carnival’ which has a very interesting tune that reminds me of the theme tune to the children’s series ‘Book Tower’. It’s an instrumental that shows her mastery of a range of instruments and shows that it is not just her voice and lyrics that are sublime.

‘Last Goodbye’ is a song that looks at the more difficult side of a relationship but does so with openness and affection. It is about the decision as to whether the history inherent in that relationship is worth fighting for.

‘When I Want to Fly’ is a folk inflected song that sounds like it could have come from any century from the 17^th onwards. It has a traditional sound, but it has subtle modern touches, particularly in her sublime voice. If you have never liked folk music, give this a go as I am sure it will convert you.

‘Another Day’ is the last original song on the album and it keeps up the extremely high standard and shows that she can deliver an excellent song within any genre, in this case the soft rock ballad.

‘Nature Boy’ is a cover of a Nat King Cole song, and let’s face it you have to be very confident to cover one of the most incredible singers of the 20^th Century. Candice Night proves that she can make even a classic like this her own with a performance of understated power and real beauty.

The final song is ‘Angel and Jezebel (Back Porch Version)’ which is an acoustic stripped back song that earns its place by being more than just a copy. It gives the song a more affectionate sound and it is a very interesting counterpoint that only the most gifted singers could deliver.

‘Sea Glass’ is my favourite album of the year by a country mile, and even in the unlikely event that it is surpassed by any other album, I can be sure I will not her a more beautiful album, vocally and instrumentally, in the whole of 2025.  

Tracklist:

1. Sea Glass
2. Unsung Hero (She’ll Never Tell)
3. The Line Between
4. Angel and Jezebel (Rock Version)
5. Promise Me
6. Dark Carnival
7. The Last Goodbye
8. When I Want to Fly
9. Another Day
10. Nature Boy
11. Angel and Jezebel (Back Porch Version)

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