950. The Coral - The Coral (2002)

Track Listing

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

Review

I love this album since I first saw them perform at Later with Jools Holland, I think it was Skeleton Key, and there was nothing like this at the time. This is still my favourite of their albums, it comes so out of nowhere, with a folk-psych mix and anything in between that was not at all common.

AS time went on The Coral seemed to me to have become slightly more mainstream, particularly with their second album, the production became slicker and the sheer excitement of something new wore off. But this album is truly something else.

The lyrics are surreal, the influences ditto, it sounds like an absolute mish-mash of styles and still it all works wonderfully. In a time where there is a dear lack of originality in music The Coral were a complete breath of fresh air.

Track Highlights

1. Dreaming of You
2. Shadows Fall
3. Calenders and Clocks
4. Time Travel

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The LP title was rumoured to be called Son of Becker (Xfm interview 25 May 2002) and Zion Egg before it was finally named The Coral. Other songs which were rumoured to appear on the debut before being left out were "Run Run!" and "Tumble Grave".

Dreaming of You: