The Coral - Disc of the day

The Coral
The Coral

(Deltasonic, 2002)

Roll up, roll up! Liverpudlian experimentalists record eccentric pop gem!

The Coral must love the studio. In the bygone age of their freak-beat heroes (Beefheart, Love, early Floyd) five albums in five years may have warranted a "what kept you?”, but with many of today’s bands extending the gap between records to three or four years, Hoylake’s finest are a speeding bullet train of sonic sustenance. Bowling out of Liverpool’s Zanzibar Club a few years ahead of their spooky, kooky, chart-bothering label mates The Zutons, The Coral arrived armed to the teeth with an album of surreal sea shanty rants (Skeleton Key, Spanish Main), vintage ‘60s pop (Dreaming Of You, Waiting For The Heartaches) and a potent dose of brooding psychedelia (Simon Diamond, Goodbye). This heady mix still propels the band to this day – as do the honeyed, rasping vocals of the hugely underrated James Skelly. Super-strength melodies, blitzed by off-beat arrangements, powered by youthful abandon and shadowed by a vertiginous wall of pop heritage, it’s modern British music at its most magical. Album number six is probably already in the can, but The Coral’s debut remains their most enchanting work to date.

Ross Bennett

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 6:00 AM GMT 07/06/2008

Further Listening

The Zutons – Who Killed The Zutons? (Deltasonic, 2004)

The Doors – Strange Days (Elektra, 1967)

Michael Head And The Strands – The Magical World Of The Strands (Megaphone, 1997)

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