At last, good news for the Miracle Mile. After years spent trying to look for a deal that deserved such a name, they finally signed to Demon Records, home of Martin Stephenson as well. What is unexpected is that it took so long to do it. The Miracle Mile's debut album, Bluer Skies, was actually a collection of ten astonishing songs, any of which could have easily been a single. The follow-up, dated 1997, was called Bicycle Thieves and it is their best album to date. Actually, an album that anybody should have. All of them, anyway, have had but a limited and frustrating distribution. Candids comes as the band's third release, just a few months after Bicycle Thieves was released. It is THE album Trevor Jones and Steve Davis count on and have planned and prepared to the last detail, from the selection of the songs to the packaging (the cover picture portrays Robert De Niro in The Deerhunter). Both confirm Jones' passion for the movies (listen to 'Once Upon A Time In The West', for instance). But it's in the excellent quality of the tunes, some of which could certainly be considered as "virtual" classics and deserve more attention than they have right now. Take 'Sugar and Spite', for instance, or the radiophone 'Wheels of the World', already distributed as a taster in the namesake E.P., along with 'Full Circle' and 'Body#19'. These songs, believe me, instil pure pleasure in the listener's ears and they slip away as naturally and as elegantly as Deborah Compagnoni on her skis. The best tracks, however, are 'Kissing Ronnie Spector', a sad guitar ballad, 'Shoot the Moon', a catchy song which was already included in Bluer Skies, and the Bluenileish 'Tenderhooks'. The cherry on the cake is the hidden track, 'Ole', a six-minutes singalong which will stick to your mind for a long time to come. These songs are the real core of the album, which hopefully will turn out as one of the highlights of this year's indiepop. No doubt Trevor Jones has an innate instinct for melody, and Candids does nothing but bear out this strong impression. His only problem is that he has very bad taste… for football. The question is: will he still support Man Utd, now that Beckham's going out with the Spice Girls' Victoria Adams?