The Coral Album: “Magic And Medicine”

Say bye-bye to the Coral's frenzied pirate-rock from their self-titled album. In "Magic & Medicine," the British rock band takes a more conventional, low-key approach to their music. And it pays off, with raw rockers, sweet love songs and dark tales.

It starts off with ghostly love song "In the Forest" ("Out of the forest to the church's gate/By her grave she awaits her fate"). Folkier material follows in due course ("Don't Think You're The First"), along with catchy suicide stories ("Bill McCai"), lighter pop-rock ("Pass It On"), slow songs (piano-led "Eskimo Lament") and solid psychedelica ("Don't Think You're the First").

Accompanying "Magic & Medicine" is the bonus CD "Nightfreak & The Sons of Becker," possibly the weirdest title of the past year. This is a solidly lo-fi album, sort of a halfway point before their next release. It's stripped down and solidly scratchy, like a demo album, with acoustic gem "Sorrow or the Song" and psychedelic ka-bam "Precious Eyes."

It takes a little time to "get" fully into "Magic & Medicine," especially if listeners expect more of the same. Rather than use a theme or gimmick (like the pirate thing), they go through some solid songs where their musical worth can shine through. They do stumble with some of the lower-key songs, like "Secret Kiss" or "Confessions of A.D.D.D." They're not bad, just lackluster. And that is "Magic & Medicine"'s biggest flaw --they lost some of that sizzling intensity.

One thing that hasn't changed is the delicious weird edge of their songs. The evocative semi-psychedelic lyrics are well-suited to the music. The music itself is somewhat less intense, but now more acoustic and earthy. There's even piano and organ here, adding a richness to the music. James Skelly's shouting vocals have also toned down, showing that the man can actually sing.

The evolution of the Coral pays off. "Magic & Medicine is less intense than the Coral's debut album, but more musically rich; "Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker" is less polished, but has that delicious rock bite. Definitely worth checking out.

I cant believe more people arent as impressed with this album as I am. First off its two cds for 11.99, second at least 80% of the music is off the charts good! Its certainly better than most music being made today. If you are a fan of fun trippy rock youll love it, thumbs up.

Some bonafide awesome songs are mixed with some tuneless bohemian jams. Between this album and the very low rent "Nightfreak" bonus disc, there are only 6 good songs. The rest are either very slow or very bizarre or very stupid. I loved the debut, and I love the 6 good songs. The band is talented and they are capable of some great tunes. But it's OK to not release every track you record...

2 1/2

This quality of output will impress only if low expectations are a starting point.

I sort of stumbled across the Coral's debut s/t album thanks to the catchy single 'Goodbye' and was then completely blown away by the rest of the album. In fact, 'Goodbye' is probably my LEAST favourite track on that album these days, which says a lot about the strength of the rest of the songs!

So how is the follow-up album then? Well, this aint no sophomore slump! After my first listen the only tracks that really jumped out at me were the excellent safari-styled 'Don't Think You're the First', the sweet 'Liezah', the catchy 'Pass it On' & the awesome closer 'Confessions of A.D.D.D.'. The rest of the tracks just didn't really stick, but thankfully repeated listens largely solved that problem.

I still don't feel this album is on-par with the s/t debut, but it's an excellent album in it's own right. The only tracks I haven't really taken a shine to are 'Eskimo Lament' & Milkwood Blues', but these are by no means poor tracks; they just don't measure up to the rest of the album.

Outside of these two, every track is stellar, and if you were impressed by the debut you'll find much to like here!