The Coral Album: “Coral”

After buying music from the UK scene since I was fifteen, the freshness was wearing off - until now. The last album that had this kind of impact on me was Oasis' "Morning Glory", and that album has always been a guilty pleasure. Before that, only one other release gave me goosebumps - The Stones Roses debut lp. Now, The Coral ain't the Roses, but it's better than almost any of the overhyped records from last year, including the Queens Of The Stoneage (ok, a U.S. band) and The Music, which were just "ok", at best. So, what's so special about this one - it's so over-the-top, with pop, psych, reggae and anything else they thought would fit into the stew. But, the main thing that makes it work is that it never sounds derivative, as so many other guitar acts do. There's a bit of Beefheart, Beatles, Wedding Present and lord knows what else. It's not going to be to everyone's taste, but if you give it a chance, you'll find this to be one of the most rewarding acts to come out of the UK in years.

Imagine Arthur Lee and Jim Morrison sailing across the world in Captain Beefheart's ship, wreaking havoc and looting the musical riches they encounter in order to concoct the best, most bizarrely tuneful music on earth and you might be close to what the Coral's brand of psych pop sounds like.

They composed this unnaturally assured debut while no one in the band was even 20 and that surely lends their music a youthful effervescence rivalled by nobody in these days of studied posturing and mechanical songwriting- they put across the tremendous fun they must have had making this album.

I was initially drawn to this band because it was the very first time I saw anyone being actively influenced by my favourite band- Love, but I've become a Coral fan basically due to their blending formula in which the only rule seems to be that, as long as there's quality in it, every genre can be absorbed and consequently transformed in heady and highly entertaining pop music.

In addition to their adventurous nature they write truly memorable songs, of which the supremely catchy "Dreaming of You", "I Remember When" and "Goodbye" are sterling examples, without totally abandoning a more gnarly and obscure side ("Skeleton Key", the bonus track "Time Travel").

Who would have thought that the best album of the 21st century would mostly reach for inspiration from almost 40 years in the past?

The Coral's debut does just that and settles the band not as promising hopefuls but as more than qualified contenders for the title of most vital band in the world.

...that's probably the best way to describe The Coral's The Coral, or perhaps the vaguest way... At any rate, this is one of the better CD's I've found this year, though I write this a good 4 months or so after I bought it, and I have undoubtedly played it out since that point in time.

The CD's got boatloads of energy, some fantastic harmonies and a great sense of fun. I don't really have much music in my collection like it, though I'm not exactly in the Elite when it comes to that sorta thing. The music is creative, pretty wild and not without its clever and interesting instrumentation. I'm told the music is very Doors-esque, but I've never been a gigantic fan, so I can't really compare.

The first half of this CD is stunning and without QUESTION worth the entire price of the CD. "Dreaming of You", the song that apparently made this album's existence known, is probably the most catchy song I've heard in years, and it's easy to understand how it launched people into buying the album. "Shadows Fall" is also a beautifully conceived piece of... something. Completely hypnotic sounds here. Lyrically the band isn't really my cup of tea, though I resonate with some of the songs, "Siamond Diamond" inparticular.

Like other reviewers have commented upon, The Coral stands out primarily because it's so unlike what we've been hearing so much of in pretty much every direction this day in age. I don't know (or care?) if it borrows from a number of older musical sources, because it's so rare these days to find something this interesting and fun.

Oh, and it's a better CD to listen to in your car whilst driving then to calmly sit down with a pair of headphones on, I've noticed. It'll make even the most depressed person come alive, if only momentarily.

The Coral's debut album sounds like it came through a musical time warp from the past, which, on some cosmic level probably makes them very similar to the Squirrel Nut Zippers. With reverb-y guitars and a vintage vibe on songs such as "Goodbye","Dreaming of You" or the opener, "Spanish Main," these guys could have played at the Cavern Club in the early 60s. But they are not just re-treads or throw-backs. Nearly every song is inhabited by a variety of stylistic influences, multiple tempo changes and theatrical three-part harmonies. "Simon Diamond" is one example, although it does contain the album's best turn of phrase: "now he's swapped his legs for roots, his arms and soil are in cahoots" Listen, if you can, to "Skeleton Key," and you'll hear a band unafraid to take chances, even if they sound like a klezmer band that got too deep into a bowl of rum punch. With multiple lyrical references to the sea (including their name), The Coral seem to fancy themselves as pirates, plundering various musical styles for their own salty songs. Well-versed musicians, they use any style and any instrument they can to get the job done, from accordions to banjos. The impressive part is that they do all this in less than four minutes per song. It's clever and heady stuff, though not always listenable.

Ah, yes, another good reason for me to continue shelling out my hard-earned bucks on music CDs! This collection is an extremely pleasing aural experience from beginning to end, and while some listeners may hear a pinch of Liverpool ancestry in the Coral's musical offerings, many of the songs are (to my ears at least) more closely akin to north country neighbors, the Inspiral Carpets (who, of course, borrowed quite heavily from Julian Cope circa "World Shut Your Mouth"). In any event, this is not a path that has been beaten, even occasionally, in recent years and although it may not be new, it is nevertheless a refreshing change of pace from the fast becoming run-of-the-mill Brit-pop sound of the 90s. Give this a spin. You won't be sorry.