[.ca] Coral

From Amazon.com:
While the fiery rock & roll spirit of the La's Lee Mavers courses through their veins, the debut album by youthful Liverpudlian mystics the Coral prove they are far more than Merseybeat imitators. The opening "Spanish Main" ("We've set sail again! / We're heading for the Spanish Main!") casts the sextet as marauding pirates, out to pillage musical history for loot. It's possible to hear the influence of everything from Captain Beefheart to Miles Davis, from Spanish mariachi music to Cossack dance rhythms, surfacing between the tight, ragged grooves of "I Remember When" and "Shadows Fall." This album is stuffed to bursting point with ideas that are presented with remarkable clarity. Highlights are the curious, swooping fable of "Simon Diamond" and the insane "Skeleton Key," which finds frontman James Skelly croaking, "Solid gold skeleton key / Opens the most intricate lock / Brother, roll another for me / I am shipwrecked on the rocks!" as his bandmates caw like parrots in the background. --Louis Pattison

A chest of treasure:
If a gang of 16th century English buccaneers gave up being pirates and formed a rock band then The Coral would be that band. Maratime imagery washes over their self-titled debut album. The songs are loaded with lyrics like "we'll set sail again, we're headed for the Spanish Main", "drop the anchor, lift my heart, from stern to stern I'm torn apart", "seek the hull, leave the deck" and "I am shipwrecked on the rocks". Many of the tracks also have rocking, sea-shanty like beats the conjure up visions of pirates and merchant ships. The Coral's first effort is so indebted to the sea that it could almost be considered a concept album - but don't be turned off. Among the oddly original oceanic flotsam is some familiar, retro-rock jetsom. The lyrics, particularly in Simon Diamond, are reminiscent of the psychedelic musings of early Pink Floyd, while the vocal harmonies in several songs evoke memories of The Who. Fans of Aussie rockers The Living End will enjoy the punk/rockabilly feel of 'I Remember When' and the quirky rhythm and melody of 'Dreaming of You' is not unlike The Cure's 'Love Cats'. The Coral's music is not for everyone but those who appreciate imaginative lyrics and creatice, original tunes will love it. Buy it now me heartys! Arrrgghhh!

good album, but not nothing new if you've heard Syd Barrett:
As many of the other reviews have said, I first The Coral on the Conan O'Brien Show. I was interested, and actually went and bought the album a few days later even without hearing anything else from the album. This album is definitely different than most music being released today, but it's clear to me where they got their sound from. Only a few of the reviews I read mentioned early Pink Floyd and/or Syd Barrett, and to me, this album sounds A LOT like the early Pink Floyd era. The short, wacked-out, psychedelic songs clearly have the Syd Barrett signature sound, especially "Skeleton Key". Almost every song has some resembelence to the early Pink Floyd days. Sometimes its a guitar riff, sometimes a certain lyric, but in either case, it's similiar. I'm not calling the Coral cheap rip-offs of Syd Barrett, nor am I saying this is a bad album, I'm simply saying that if there had been no Syd Barrett, the Coral probably wouldn't be a blessing for us today, which is simply, something different from all the other junk out there today. this is a breath of fresh air, and it's definitely a good choice.

cool sound, horrible lyrics:
The music is pretty fun and i like a lot of the songs but i can't get past their lyrics. And i'm not the kind of music fan that is really into music based on how deep or moving someones lyrics are. It's just on this album they are preditable and annoying like a 7th grader writing a poem. The music is pretty cool and reminds me alot of old psychadelic music; sounds like the doors, only a little weirder. Definately interesting music. Here lies my problem, a song i like the sound of, only having to hear "who are you, who am i, please don't ask, i'll lay down and die." GAY. It doesn't even go with the rest of the song, it is like they stuck a bunch of horrible rymes together. The singers voice is cool, but what these guys need is to hire someone to write songs for them.

Fun...:
...that's probably the best way to describe The Coral's The Coral, or perhaps the vaguest way... At any rate, this is one of the better CD's I've found this year, though I write this a good 4 months or so after I bought it, and I have undoubtedly played it out since that point in time. The CD's got boatloads of energy, some fantastic harmonies and a great sense of fun. I don't really have much music in my collection like it, though I'm not exactly in the Elite when it comes to that sorta thing. The music is creative, pretty wild and not without its clever and interesting instrumentation. I'm told the music is very Doors-esque, but I've never been a gigantic fan, so I can't really compare. The first half of this CD is stunning and without QUESTION worth the entire price of the CD. "Dreaming of You", the song that apparently made this album's existence known, is probably the most catchy song I've heard in years, and it's easy to understand how it launched people into buying the album. "Shadows Fall" is also a beautifully conceived piece of... something. Completely hypnotic sounds here. Lyrically the band isn't really my cup of tea, though I resonate with some of the songs, "Siamond Diamond" inparticular. Like other reviewers have commented upon, The Coral stands out primarily because it's so unlike what we've been hearing so much of in pretty much every direction this day in age. I don't know (or care?) if it borrows from a number of older musical sources, because it's so rare these days to find something this interesting and fun. Oh, and it's a better CD to listen to in your car whilst driving then to calmly sit down with a pair of headphones on, I've noticed. It'll make even the most depressed person come alive, if only momentarily.

,,,:
This is a wonderfully diverse album made by a band that can play wonderfully diverse music wonderfully well. At it's worst, it has that vibe of hollow, heartless, but entertaining retro-ism you get from so many "retro" acts. At it's best... well... calling them "retro" is a bit of an insult... they can be beautifully kaleidoscopic and have something that resembles "their own" sound. It's very enjoyable, and definately worth owning.

• Spanish Main
• I Remember When
• Shadows Fall
• Dreaming Of You
• Simon Diamond
• Goodbye
• Waiting For The Heartaches
• Skeleton Key
• Wildfire
• Bad Man
• Calendars And Clocks
• Goodbye (Video)
• Dreaming Of You (Video)