Candlebox is the debut album by Seattle rock band Candlebox. It contains their best known hit, "Far Behind", as well as the hit singles "Change", "You" and "Cover Me". Released in 1993, the album has since been certified 4× platinum in the United States.
Promotion
The music videos for "Change", "Far Behind" and "You" remained in longstanding rotation on MTV and the latter became two of the most requested videos of 1993, and the former being featured on Beavis and Butt-Head.
Other songs were recorded during the Candlebox sessions and included on other releases. "Can't Give In," for instance, appears on the Airheads film soundtrack. "Pull Away" also served as a B-side to the "You" CD single.
The album has received mixed reviews. In a review for The Village Voice, although he gave the album a C rating, Robert Christgau panned the album and called the band "postgrunge scenesuckers [who] aren't total pop-metal conformists—they're a tad more intense, with sharper drumming."[5]The Philadelphia Inquirer concluded that "underneath all that flannel there's a Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow cover band just biding its time."[4]Trouser Press opined: "Much as Bon Jovi put a net on hair metal, Candlebox's primary function was to put a final stamp of megaselling irrelevance on the rotten corpse of Big Northwest Noise."[6]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine was more positive, writing for AllMusic: "Candlebox rode the alternative bandwagon to the top of the charts with their self-titled debut album." He also calls the singles "Change", "You" and "Far Behind" "the closest they come to memorable melodies."[3]
Although released in July 1993, Candlebox did not enter the top 10 Billboard 200 until August 1994,[7] upon the success of its third and biggest single "Far Behind", which would reach number 18 on the Hot 100 chart roughly a month later.[8] The album peaked at number seven, Candlebox's highest position so far, and remained on the chart for 104 weeks.[9]
