ult horror film The Wicker Man made one hell of a comeback in 2002. Not only did it get re-released on video, but on DVD as well, in a really cool-looking wooden box. Next, the long lost soundtrack finally got a deserved and official release on SilvaScreen Records, after 30 years of limbo. And yet, even on top of that, it has been praised and had numerous tributes by bands throughout the year. The Coral parodied the film in one of their videos, Wigwam covered one of the film’s songs, and finally, the piece de resistance, Candidate have written and recorded a concept album about the film.

It’s pretty obvious just looking at the cover art, as to what this record actually is. A nice wood grain in the background, with a giant sunflower and the shadow of something that looks like a giant square-headed man with a ladder coming from his crotch over top. Inside are pictures of the band at the place where the film was made. Yes, they actually went to the remote part of Scotland and made sure The Wicker Man took over complete control of their minds. A shot of them sitting between the actual legs of the wooden statue (which, of course, burns in the film) is quite amusing to see.

Candidate’s slow and woozy folk rock may not have been crafted for this particular album, but it seems so ideal, it reaches a point where you begin to wonder if these guys are too perfect in their interests or if someone else told them to do this. Either way, Candidate have scored a masterful tribute to the music of The Wicker Man, opting to even update it ever so slightly, thus avoiding a simply mimicry.

Most of the record is true and could fit nicely into the film’s original score, without any notice, yet there are moments where Candidate get away with including some songs that may be cut more from themselves than Wicker. “Rain On The Roof” is a modern, alt.folk song that has too much pop behind it to sound eerie and mystic, and “Burrowhead” sounds a lot more like the beat-friendly folk The Beta Band prefer. Yet neither song is that far removed from the more medieval ones. “Barrel Of Fear” and “Tomorrow’s Tomorrow” follow more of a blueprint to bring a truly haunting and beautiful feel of that odd spiritualism that the film spews.

Quite an interesting listen, Nuada is something that even those who have no idea what the film is about could enjoy. That is, as long as you like your folk music with a dash of archaic and natural medievalism to it.