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The Coral – The 100 Club 06/08/07
Time was that you could set your watch by the arrival of a new album from The Coral and the Hoylake heroes’ nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic was beautifully matched by a strike rate of instantly accessible nuggets that bordered on the frightening.
Here was a band as much in thrall to the power of melody as it was to experimentation and in the process existed outside of the dictates of the flavour-of-the-month brigade.
Of course, when confronted with a unit as prolific as this, it’s easy to take things for granted: if you miss one album or single another will soon be on its way, right? Well…not quite. With rumours of disquiet within their ranks during the recording of ‘Roots & Echoes’, it looked for a moment that we could be on the way to losing one of our finest. Factor in a year without The Coral and the new album’s mixed reception and you’d be forgiven for thinking that events could go seriously awry.
Yet based on tonight’s evidence, The Coral are back to reclaim your faith and affections. If ‘Roots & Echoes’ has reigned in some of the band’s more outré tendencies, then there’s very little to show that that’s the case here. ‘Remember Me’ takes on darker, more hallucinogenic edge as it swirls and twists itself into another dimension. Likewise the psychedelic stomp of ‘In The Rain’ and the drama of ‘She’s Got A Reason’ where bossanova beats and shimmering guitars exude a hypnotic power over the intimate crowd at the front of the stage.
But there’s more to The Coral than moody atmospherics. Their mastery of hook-laden tunes is a constant source of wonder and the likes of ‘Dreaming Of You’, ‘Pass It On’ and ‘Jacqueline’ are greeted by equal parts squeals of delight and feet that move involuntarily yet enthusiastically. Oozing confidence from every pore, The Coral are a refreshingly bullshit-free proposition. There’s no gimmickry, frills or brouhaha, just tune after tune after tune.
While there’s a nonchalant air about them, The Coral are far from disdainful. Smiles and winks are exchanged throughout and though there’s little in the way of showcraft, guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones deploys a furious maelstrom during ‘She Sings The Mourning’ as he drags a violin bow across his guitar strings.
If anything, tonight has proved just how much The Coral has been missed and just how welcome their return is. More importantly, despite the bumpy ride to get here, it looks like The Coral is here to stay.
To view an exclusive photo gallery of the gig please click here.
Julian Marszalek
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