The Coral Album: “The Invisible Invasion”

Having just got into the Libertines and other British bands I asked for recommendations based on that. Someone casually mentioned The Coral and I fell in love with them after listening to their new CD, the Invisible Invasion, just once. Just a fantastic album that doesn't get old.

The downside? This isn't a CD. This is a Content Protected Coaster with what is called XPC protection. Do you want to copy this CD onto your harddrive? Sure! As long as you use protected WMA and install software on your computer. OH! You want to put it on an iPod? SORRY! Sony attempts to blame Apple for only allowing MP3, AAC (both protected and non), and Apple Lossless Codec files onto the most popular player in the planet. "We're working with them", they say, "to make Apple embrace our open standard". Their "open standard" however, is a crippled and lossy format (protected WMA) that is only supported by Microsoft and associated players.

There is a happy ending to this, however. I have found a program that lets me rip the songs from this CD to unprotected MP3 (Exact Audio Copy) so I can put it on my iPod. Sad when people who buy the CD are treated like criminals, and when its easier to just download, isn't it?

Invisible Invasion has the immediacy of the Coral's first album with the maturing song writing of Magic And Medicine.

The music is a hybrid of 60's/80's psychedelic rock and present day art rock. Each song has a sharpness and character to it that makes it fun to listen to more and more.

I don't know how this band hasn't taken off more in the US.

The Operator? That song is as crunchy as anything that the Queens of Stoneage have done. Just about all the songs are awesome- but that song grabs me the most.

I agree with another reviewer that Egyptian Sand isn't up to par with the rest of the album- mainly because it sounds exactly like a mix of songs Syd Barrett wrote on Pink Floyds first album.

Also I like how this album mixes a good amount of pop tunes with more aggressive/progressive songs. That was one thing that disappointed me about my initial listenings to Magic And Medicine; it felt pastoral and slightly poppy. Were as the debut album was nothing but emotional highs and fun wacky tunes. It would have been dissapointing in the long run if they would have made a part ii to their debut. They were what, 19 when they made that album? I like that they keep extending themselves.

Invisible Invasion shows a band that is refining their expression of sound.

ps

The e.p., Nightfreak & The Sons Of Becker, was a sign of the transition the Coral was making towards this album, but Medicine Magic already felt transitional- so it seemed mostly like a set of b-sides. Although Grey Harpoon is a personal favorite.

The Coral have been the band that have always been at the center of the new Liverpool music explosion. If they didn't pave the path maybe things would not have been so easy for like-minded bands such as The Zutons. They have always had an eclectic mix of British psychedelic and modern folk music. This album is another great chapter in the musical life of The Coral. They are a young band (all under 24) and they show their development of this, their fourth or fifth release. This album doesn't really have a few singles and a few songs to fill up the rest. It is a steady journey. It is a full picture. I find myself dipping in here and there. It's mood music for any time of the day. It's mellow in part. It rocks out at other times. It is a very mod record.

Nobody can accuse the Coral of not evolving. With every release, the Merseyside band has revamped their sound and made it all seem new, whether it's rough B-sides, rollicking pirate rock or pastoral pop-rock. So what have they gotten up to now?

In their fourth album in as many years -- if you count the halfway-album "Nightfreak and the Songs of Becker" -- they change it yet again. This time, there's no pirate rock or bizarro pop songs. Instead, "The Invisible Invasion" relies on dark art-rock with a twisted psychedelica vibe, with hints of what they have done before, but never with deja vu.

It opens with a wonderfully sinister, twangy opener, which quickly falls into the dark, catchy rock of "She Sings the Mourning" and "Cripples Crown." James Skelly intones eerily over the music, "Blood red love knot, temptress eyes/cuts right through the family times," which add a strangely supernatural edge to the music. These two are probably the strongest and most polished songs on here.

There's a brief and ill-advised foray into folk-rock, which the Coral quickly veers away from. Good thing, too -- it's too cheery and sunny for this record, as are one or two other catchy little songs. So then it's back to undulating keyboard, crunchy riffs and hammering drums. Not to mention those ghostly "woo woo" synths that pop up every few minutes.

"Invisible Invasion" is very catchy. Not in a bad way -- instead, it sounds like a cheery pop singer in a haunted house, who is about to be overcome by the ghosts. It borders on kitsch in places; having Skelly moaning "cooooome hooooommme" over a twisting riff sounds silly. But with Skelly's pleasantly smooth voice, the Coral actually makes it sound sinister.

And the Coral stretches further into experimentation with "Arabian Sand," a Pink-Floydian song that is only four minutes long, but feels at least three times as long. It's rough, ragged and brims over with sound. And at the end of it, I'm still not sure whether it's a disaster or pure brilliance. One thing is sure: It'll get your heart rate up as it accelerates to a climax.

How do you judge an album by a band that does nothing twice? Just take it for what it is -- and in "Invisible Invasion's" case, it's a rough, ghostly, distorted mass of catchy rock'n'roll.

As many other reviewers note, these CDs install MALICIOUS software WIHTOUT REQUIRING CONSENT from the user.

This is not the only problem, howerver. Sony's End User License Agreement requires the following things of all consumers who purchase this "content protected" music:

1. If your house gets burgled, you have to delete all your music from your laptop when you get home. That's because the EULA says that your rights to any copies terminate as soon as you no longer possess the original CD.

2. You can't keep your music on any computers at work. The EULA only gives you the right to put copies on a "personal home computer system owned by you."

3. If you move out of the country, you have to delete all your music. The EULA specifically forbids "export" outside the country where you reside.

4. You must install any and all updates, or else lose the music on your computer. The EULA immediately terminates if you fail to install any update. No more holding out on those hobble-ware downgrades masquerading as updates.

5. Sony-BMG can install and use backdoors in the copy protection software or media player to "enforce their rights" against you, at any time, without notice. And Sony-BMG disclaims any liability if this "self help" crashes your computer, exposes you to security risks, or any other harm.

6. The EULA says Sony-BMG will never be liable to you for more than $5.00. That's right, no matter what happens, you can't even get back what you paid for the CD.

7. If you file for bankruptcy, you have to delete all the music on your computer. Seriously.

8. You have no right to transfer the music on your computer, even along with the original CD.

9. Forget about using the music as a soundtrack for your latest family photo slideshow, or mash-ups, or sampling. The EULA forbids changing, altering, or make derivative works from the music on your computer.

Refer to the following for details:

• List of Affected CDs
• EULA analysis
• Rootkit analysis
• Continued rootkit analysis