FEATURE:
Dreaming of You
The Coral at Twenty
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ONE of the best and most unusual debut albums…
The Coral is twenty on 29th July. If you do not own this fabulous album on vinyl, then make sure that you get it. Following the release of a single and an E.P. plus two U.K. tours, The Coral began recording their debut album. Recording sessions were produced by Ian Broudie and The Coral. Mixing together Psychedelia, Folk and Rock, The Coral was unlike anything else released in 2002. I know there will be a lot of discussion about the album on its anniversary later in the month. The band’s lead, James Skelly, wrote most of the tracks on The Coral (some were alongside bandmate Nick Power). Although their debut is packed with tremendous tracks, the best-known offering is Dreaming of You. Released as a single in October 2002, this is a song that many associate with The Coral. I love how varied and wide-ranging The Coral is. Here is a band many people did not know about. Rather than (them) conforming to what was around at the time or producing something simple, the Merseyside group threw so much into the mix! Of course, The Coral have gone on to have a very long and successful career. Their latest album, Coral Island, was released last year. Although they are not making music quite as psychedelic as their 2002 debut, the band are still very much in their own league. I listen back to The Coral now and am still blown away!
I am going to round off pretty soon. I think it is important to bring in a couple of reviews for a truly brilliant album. This is what AllMusic had to say when they reviewed one of the very best and most interesting albums of the first decade of this century:
“The Coral's self-titled 2002 debut kicked up quite a flurry of excitement when it washed ashore from the picturesque seaside village of Hoylake, a deep-water anchorage in the borough of Wirral. Not since the Beatles, or perhaps even Echo & the Bunnymen, has a young band from England's blustery western coast caused this much commotion. The album begins with a two-minute psych-rock sea shanty, "Spanish Main," which bursts forth with a frothy and joyous refrain. Along the way, the boys pick their way through somewhat-discarded flotsam and jetsam genres (mostly from the '60s), including 1964-era Merseybeat, horn-driven ska, fuzzed-out acid rock, and Brit-pop psychedelia. Other influences hailed from the West Coast of America -- the Doors, Love, the Beach Boys, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and even the Banana Splits -- and some were even from the big city of London, like Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and the Action. "Shadows Fall" is where this adventurous tale really finds its sea legs; the Top 30 U.K. single features a mix of styles and sounds, including barbershop quartet vocals, Madness-style pop-ska, Russian Cossack folk, and a subtle Morricone-esque harmonica. The result is a bit jarring, but there's a fervent originality at work here, despite all of the referencing of the halcyon past. "Dreaming of You" is probably an even better example of what the Coral have to offer, with strong lead vocals, a tough Tamla beat, and suitably vintage organ humming underneath. "Simon Diamond" is effervescent 1967-style British psych, while the rambunctious "Skeleton Key" blends Zappa-esque guitars, serpentine Middle Eastern melodies, and flavorful horns. In addition to a massive heap of critical praise, the Coral also managed to connect with an audience who plunked down enough gold doubloons to help this album land in the U.K.'s Top Ten charts. For a debut, it's self-assured and the band are able to fold in a multitude of influences while in the end coming out sounding exactly like the Coral and no one else”.
The Coral followed up on their eponymous 2002 with 2003’s Magic and Medicine. That album is one of my absolute favourites. I have a lot of fondness and respect for a very accomplished debut. Here is what NME wrote about the spectacular album that is The Coral:
“Dunno how it happened. But thanks to a glitch in the time-space continuum, The Coral's brilliant, bizarre debut album arrives with us in mid-2002, fresh from the British beat boom of 1964. En route they've navigated their way via Country Joe & The Fish, Leadbelly, Motown, The Doors, Russian Cossack music, the (early) The Coral, The Action, Hawaiian instrumentals, WWF wrestling, Scouse luminaries The Stairs and Shack (former drummer Alan Wills, fittingly, is their manager) and, most probably, Captain Birdseye. It's so nautically-inclined you can almost smell the fishing nets. And all the work of six straggly youths from Hoylake, Merseyside - where else? - the eldest of whom, leather-lunged singer James Skelly, weighs in at a wizened 21. Too much.
In The Coral's company, the usual critical shorthand isn't so much made redundant as turned into hieroglyphics. Take 'Goodbye'. Stomping rhythm 'n' blues for two minutes, then suddenly the guitars flip into gonzo-punk overload and then whoooosh, it's turned into that dream sequence bit in 'Wayne's World 2' where Wayne meets Jim Morrison in the desert, before wriggling to a triumphant conclusion in four minutes flat.
Tunes so joyous you thought they only existed on dusty 45s in ancient pub jukeboxes appear regularly through the mist. 'Dreaming Of You' is two minutes and 19 seconds of yearning pop confusion ('I still need you but/I don't want you') to rival both Madness' 'When I Dream' and Frank Zappa' 'My Girl' (told you it was weird); 'Skeleton Key' is a deranged Coral tribute that morphs into a gothic mariachi shuffle and finally, sublime, slippery Grace Jones disco and 'Shadows Fall', as you know, features the first ever marriage of ragtime, Egyptian reggae and barbershop on record. All orchestrated by Joe Meek (sombrero's off, incidentally, to Ian Broudie for an impeccable production).
But The Coral display not the slightest trace of Gomez-ian worthiness, just an insane joy at being able to make an album that, as James has gone on record as saying, sounds 'timeless'. Only the Super Furriesand [/a] would dare show such disrespect for the rulebook, but even they, you suspect, would draw the line at skiffle-driven Gregorian sea shanties.
As a final 'Calendars & Clocks' suggests ('Descendants of joy/ return the father to the boy'), [a]The Coral have ventured into rock's pre-history in their quest for fresh musical plunder and the outcome is the funniest, most”.
On 29th July, The Coral turns twenty. It introduced the band to so many people. Dreaming of You sits alongside other gems like Spanish Main, Shadows Fall and Skeleton Key. A remarkable album that everyone needs to hear, go and seek it out today if you have not heard it before. My love for The Coral has not dimmed through the years. It is, without any doubt…
A remarkable debut.