“Candles” describes politicians who, instead of proposing changes to policy to help the environment in the face of climate change, instead divert their attention to gods and blind faith. The song finds no sympathy in their politics, arguing that this matter is not just urgent, but relevant to everyone. As they stammer over these problems, time is moving fast and the window to prevent catastrophe shrinks. Despite the confrontational lyrics, “Candles” is an upbeat song with mellow keys, a lot of percussion and a bossa nova feel.
At 15:59 in the video The Making of Omnium Gatherum Stu, Joey and Ambrose are seen in the studio listening to the song before bouncing it (exporting multiple tracks into one track). Joey notes the Mellotron parts, saying that he was “riding the flutter” before talking about a strange Instagram experience. The footage indicates that the song was finished the same day the band was recording “Blame It On the Weather.” In the end, Ambrose (percussion), Cavs (drums), Cook (synthesizer), Joey (synthesizer/Mellotron) and Stu (vocals/percussion/guitar/Wurlitzer/bass/vibraphone/keyboards) would all be given credits for the song. It was recorded, mixed and produced by Stu.
In February of 2022 the band teased song titles through emojis on Twitter and allowed fans to try and figure them out. “Candles” was very simple with two candle emojis. Two users would guess the song with @slorchcollector getting the first liked comment. The song was released on April 22nd, 2022 as the second-to-last track on Omnium Gatherum.
“Candles” has not been played live though Stu has mentioned that it would be fun.