The Coral: “The Invisible Invasion”
THE CD: “Invisible Invasion”
PERFORMER: The Coral
The fourth album from British indie band, The Coral, finds them nearing full bloom as the psychedelic, acid-pop band they aspire to be. The first track, “She Sings the Mourning,” sets this tone with rolling bass, vibrato guitar and the balmy voice of singer James Skelly wafting some strange tale.
From there it is a mind-twisting voyage through a world reminiscient of King Crimson, the Animals and the Velvet Underground. But “Invasion” is more than a nostalgic countercultural anthology. The Coral are far from shiftless copycats. They have worked hard to honor their roots and have us like the outcome.
Unlike songs on the band’s grittier 2002 self-titled debut or on the longer, musically indulgent albums that followed, tunes like “A Warning to the Curious” from this latest effort are finely crafted minglings of organ, voice and strings constructed with an intense awareness of the pop values love, misery and brevity.
At times it seems they added a little to much crowd appeal. Tunes like “In the Morning” and “So Long Ago,” while good songs, break the trance and uncomfortably skirt the bouncy fringes of ’60s bubblegum pop.
I’m speculating here, but that may have something to do with the Zutons and their 2004 debut album, “Who Killed…The Zutons.” It seems odd that the last three tracks of “Invisible Invasion” are fueled by the same soul/R-and-B/folk-rock infusion that the much younger band turned into commercial success. (Then again, the Zutons sounded so much like the Coral — the bands are both from Liverpool and have the same producer and label — that some thought them a manifestation of the same band.)
Who sounds more like who may not be clear, but we do know who came first. The Coral may not have killed the Zutons, but they certainly preceeded them in style, sound and pure enjoyment. “The Invisible Invasion,” is perhaps the best reason yet to finally give them recognition.
– By Morgan Kelly
