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Track Listings
| 1. Spanish Main |
| 2. I Remember When |
| 3. Shadows Fall |
| 4. Dreaming of You |
| 5. Simon Diamond |
| 6. Goodbye |
| 7. Waiting for the Heartaches |
| 8. Skeleton Key |
| 9. Wild Fire |
| 10. Bad Man |
| 11. Calenders and Clocks |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Review
The sonic variety of the album is startling. Robert Johnson procured his legendary blues prowess from the Devil. No really. Correspondingly, the ocean-obsessed Coral boys with their omnifarious musical approach must owe Proteus - the Greek sea god who could change form at will - a fair whack in royalties if not souls.
The album is a jaunty jog through a soundscape that incorporates large dosings of beat and psychedelia, some angsty pop, a spot of dub, a hint at disco groove and even some sort of Cossack, erm, la-de-da something or other. Hell, they even reference weird sea shanty chants on "Calendars and Clocks" - surely never before heard outside of remote Cornish fishing villages.
"Simon Diamond" and "Goodbye" have an early Pink Floyd resonance. "Badman" sounds Doorsy. "Dreaming of You" must surely have been discretely dug up from a time capsule buried in the Mersey mud at the time of beat explosion. The overall sound and attitude can be likened to a cross between Shack and Super Furry Animals.
Songs are short and snappy. Melodies are gloopy, thick and catchy. Despite leaping between styles and textures within and between tracks, The Coral, due to their accomplished musicianship and over-riding sense of mirth, somehow achieve an incredible overall coherence.
The high quality of the song-writing is a further unifying factor. Verse-chorus-verse staples are expertly executed. The third person story-telling tradition is represented by "Simon Diamond", chunky guitars and rousing choruses rock on through "Badman" while shouty psychedelic randomness hauls you excitedly through "Skeleton Key".
So they're good, really good, but are they gonna be big? Well, their self-assuredness, evident in the cocky assertion that "I ain't going down like that" in "I Remember When" suggests they have the grit. However, mass success tends to limit itself to genre-specific bands who capably mine a limited seam. Laudably, the Coral seem incapable of so confining themselves. With this as their only limitation, surely, you've gotta love 'em. --Daniel Pike
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
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Customer Reviews
From the marauding opening guitar of Spanish Main (only lyric: "We'll set sail again, we're heading for the Spanish main!") to the jangly weird-out of Calendars and Clocks, The Coral is about as eclectic and silly as debuts can get. We have a ballad about a man turning into a tree (Simon-and-Garfunkel-ish Simon Diamond), a harmonica-filled masterpiece that recalls, at moments, Madness (Shadows Fall), something that resembles a Bond theme (Wildfire) and two enjoyable, ska-like singles that you'll have to make a conscious effort to avoid singing along to (Dreaming of You, Goodbye). The lyrics are weird, the music changes directions just when you least expect it (I Remember When suddenly bursts into Russian Polska - "Hi, hi, hi, hi!") and the barbershop-quartet vocals sound, as well as silly, pretty damned good.
Sure, it's incoherent and completely all over the place - the running theme seems to be that there isn't one - but that just makes this stuff listenable, fun, and happily surprising. And in a world of predictable music that you've heard before, surely surprises must be a good thing?
Set sail. You'll love it.
If you like steriotypical music with little change and regular rhythms, perhaps this is not for you- it is true, some of the tracks (particularly 'Wildfire') cna get a little irratating, especially if you listern to them (like me)non stop on a 6 hr car journey. But I think the fact that after the 6 hrs 95% of the tracks were as fresh and enjoyable as ever says more about the album then words could.
Look out for the pirate behind you in Skeleton Key, feel the ghostly nostalgic atmosphere in Shadows Fall and skip anything that gets too repetative and annoying. Well worth the money- I have not regretted buying this once.
I have been a die hard fan of the Coral ever since i heard this. I have been to see them play live twice, and both times blew my mind.
I would recommend this to EVERYONE!
The 'songs', or compositions, are superbly different enough from each other but still follow... Read more
The other songs on the album dont realy compare to that track, but are still reasonably... Read more
Everytrack for me is great. Read more
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