Raised On Candy return with “Red M&M,” the second single from their forthcoming album Play Marbles On The Turnpike, out November 13 via Magic Door Record Label. The New Jersey duo of Joe Penna and Scotty Imp open the track with a guitar sound that immediately gets under the skin. Thin and scraping, it sits somewhere between friction and melody, abrasive enough to make the ear tense before the song has properly settled in.
Then the distortion arrives and gives that abrasion weight. The guitar gets thicker and rougher, as though it is being dragged through a brutal rebirth. It never becomes prettier. If anything, it sounds more damaged as the song continues, yet somewhere inside that change “Red M&M” becomes entrancing. The sound that initially pushes you away becomes the thing worth following.
Penna’s vocal stays comparatively controlled against it. He does not try to overpower the guitar or mimic its violence, which lets the difference between the two remain audible rather than turning everything into the same wall of aggression. That restraint gives the distortion more room to feel genuinely unruly.
Penna describes “Red M&M” as a song about someone using fear, disguised as seduction, to take what belongs to somebody else until the balance eventually turns. The lyric gives a narrative to the unease already present in the track, but the music does not need much explanation. By the time the guitar has fully taken hold, the threat is already there in the sound.
What stays with me is that “Red M&M” never really cleans itself up. The guitar remains harsh, Penna remains comparatively contained, and the track does not eventually reveal some smoother version of what it was doing all along. My reaction changed before the sound did. What first pushed me away became the reason I kept listening.
Raised On Candy’s self titled debut was recorded with Steve Albini at Electrical Audio. For Play Marbles On The Turnpike, the duo worked with Ray Ketchem at Magic Door Recording Studio in Montclair. Penna and Imp produced the record with Ketchem, who also engineered, mixed and mastered it.
Music for “Red M&M” was written by Joe Penna and Scotty Imp, with lyrics by Penna. Penna performs guitar, vocals, bass and synths, while Imp handles drums, cymbals, percussion, piano and backing vocals.
“Red M&M” is out now via Magic Door Record Label. Play Marbles On The Turnpike arrives November 13.
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