Liverpool's sextet Coral
(vocalist James Skelly, guitarists Bill Ryder-Jones and Lee Southall, keyboardist Nick Power, bassist Paul Duffy, and drummer Ian Skelly)
debuted with the single Shadows Fall (2001) and the EPs The Oldest Path (2001) and Skeleton Key (2002).
They
harked back to the effervescent psychedelic Brit-pop of the mid-Sixties for
The Coral (Deltasonic, 2002), a technicolor parade of catchy refrains
such as
Shadows Fall, Simon Diamond plus the early singles Dreaming of You and Goodbye.
Magic and Medicine (Deltasonic, 2003) lacked the nostalgic verve of
the debut but became
their greatest commercial success, spawning four hit singles, including Pass It On and Don't Think You're The First, although the most original song is perhaps Talkin' Gypsy Market Blues.
By the time that
the awful mini-album
Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker (2004) was released (it
feels like a collection of leftovers that should have been left over),
they had become just one of the many Brit-poppers on the planet.
The Invisible Invasion (2005) generally fails but it contains one of
their purest pop arias, In The Morning.
They returned to what they do best on Roots & Echoes (2007), a sort of
business card by veteran oldies collectors.
Roots & Echoes (2007) is a diligent tribute to the 1960s, a perfect
soundtrack for a nostalgic film (In The Rain,
Put The Sun Back, Jacqueline and so on).
Singles Collection (2008) is a double-disk anthology.
Coral's guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones turned to movie soundtracks in the late
2000s and debuted solo with the orchestral
soundtrack to an Italo Calvino novel, If (2011).
Butterfly House (2010), the first album without Bill Ryder-Jones,
aimed for the softer tones of the 1960s, like the music of
Simon & Garfunkel and the
Byrds.
The Curse of Love (2014) is an unreleased album of 2006, a rather
monotonous experience.
After a five-year hiatus, they regrouped with new guitarist Paul Molloy
and released Distance Inbetween (2016), a more
overtly retro-psychedelic collection
(Connector, Miss Fortune, Holy Revelation).
Move through the Dawn (2018), instead, had no psychedelic vibe but
the generic smooth pop sheen of the Electric Light Orchestra.
The ambitious double concept album Coral Island (2021) is a charming
tribute to the age of the
Zombies and the
Kinks
(Take Me Back to the Summertime),
a lukewarm stew of jangling folk-rock, psychedelic pop, and bubblegum-pop.
