The Coral Album: “Roots & Echoes [Bonus Track]”

This fourth album from the Liverpool septet is their most accomplished yet. It's confident and self-assured and the ramshackle sea-shanty element found on previous albums is gone. It feels like 1967, not 2007. Put The Sun Back is full of nostalgia and frontman James Skelly hits the right notes with his Roy Orbison-like croon on Not So Lonely.

Jacqueline is a super pop tune and Cobwebs is a light-hearted and country-esque. There are darker elements too, on In The Rain, in which James Skelly says he's, "a stranger in this life/haunted by yesterday's desires".

It's a warm, engaging album tinged with just the right amount of roughness.

"Roots & Echoes" is once again a major shift in mood and direction for The Coral. With every album they tweak and tinker with their sound ebbing from bombastic psychedelic sea shanties to pretty melodic tunes and back again, but always different than before.

"Roots & Echoes" finds the band mostly steering towards melodic ballads often times reminiscent of old country music but always with the production values of neo-psychedelic rock. There aren't too many surprises in terms of interesting tempo changes or distinguishable chord progressions that have made previous efforts so arresting. Most of the songs have a mellow and minimal approach, the productions and song writing reminds me of the e.p. "Nightfreak & The Son of Becker" but with overall better tunes.

That being said, there isn't a bad song in the set and some that I would even call great. The last three songs are the best of the batch. "Rebecca You" with it's mournful melody and lyrics are hauntingly beautiful- this is the most stirring song The Coral have ever produced. "She's Got A Reason" has all the interesting shifts, lyrics and instrumental breaks that one comes to expect from a great Coral song. Finally, "Music At Night", with the pulsating rhythm and swaying harmonies gives a sense of a modern take of the old country band Sons Of The Pioneers mixed with Johnny Cash late 50's output- great stuff.

Other standout songs on the album are "Who's Gonna Find Me" (the first single off the album), "Fireflies", and "In The Rain". Although I like "Who's Gonna Find Me" quite a bit, there's something about it that makes me think it's more of a retread rather than finding something new; but I can't really fault them for that, if that is the case.

"Roots & Echoes" is a solid album but a little boring in comparison to their other albums; overall, there aren't enough fresh creative ideas that have made previous efforts as intriguing. But, I still love it and think it's way more interesting than most of the music being made out there, and you have to respect a band that is constantly testing their boundaries as artists and not following the popular trends of the day, even if the end results aren't always A+ material.

...that these guys are still only in their mid-20s. Their creativity and competence is almost overwhelming. I only started listening to them a couple of years ago, and couldn't understand the rave reviews of their first albums - that is, until I had gone through them the 3rd or 4th time and realised just how much was going on. This selection of songs would be better then most bands' greatest hits .... singer James Skelly evokes some of the spirit of Ian McCullough, but that is hardly a criticsm. As a 50+ fan, I am happy to report that the future of quality music is safe in the hands of guys like these.

Roots & Echoes is a thrilling, catchy, all-time classic. If you're considering their back catalog: The prior release, Invisible Invasion, is also consistently creative (with kind of a macabre theme). The first three albums have some good moments, but not enough to recommend. I believe The Coral truly became The Coral with Roots & Echoes.

I really like the faux soul of Put The Sun Back. Sometimes the album slips into the easy listening a little too readily. The harmonies are great but the songwriting is average. I don't really feel the touch of the Gallagher brothers that much--beyond the inherent smoothness they bring to the chord changes. I wish that there was more acoustic songwriting in the style of Lizza off Magic & Medicine, but whatever.