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THE CORAL
Columbia
The Coral are six young geezers from suburban Liverpool who have
captured the eager hearts of Britain's musical cognoscenti. Their
selling point is an eclecticism that evades Oasis-style overkill with
compact songs that hop all over the place--horn fills and Nuggets
riffs, triangle and accordion, playful echo and stereo effects, varied
harmonies that distract from the absence of a distinctive lead voice,
rhythm shifts (natch), and a song called "Skeleton Key" that could
literally have been inspired by Beefheartian New York undergrounders
Skeleton Key. The band has a loosely Eastern European aura that
recalls not Beatles-Floyd studio psychedelica but the Bay Area's
famously eclectic Kaleidoscope, who imported the oud to rock with no
discernible effect. Granted, the Coral's commercial grounding is much
more solid, as on the barely bent pop songs "Dreaming of You" and
"Waiting for the Heartaches." Whether it can be imported to the
U.S. is another question.
Rolling Stone, Mar. 20, 2003
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