PREVIEW – The Coral
The Astoria

The Coral

GROOVES has a love-hate relationship with chirpy scousers The Coral.
Since 2002 the band has steadily served up simple but contagious guitar tunes, full of folkish melodies and pretty, stripped-down vocals.
This column has come to love tunes like Dreaming Of You, from the first album, and Pass It On, from the second. They are underrated songs that are often overlooked because they borrow heavily from The Beatles and Dylan and a host of other great names.
The attitude should have been: who cares who they sound like, if they sound good? I will always stand up for The Coral on that score.
But there is the hate side of the Grooves ying-yang relationship with The Coral. Some of their songs have a sickly aftertaste.
You hear them on the radio, they get inside your head and you hum them all day. And soon after the songs you thought you liked become a nagging intrusion.
Take new single In The Morning. You may love the simplicity of the song’s riff – it was cement-mixing around my head for a good three hours last week.
But by the end of the day, it had started to rot and I couldn’t listen to it anymore – and the song hasn’t even been released yet.
It’s a bit like tequila: you can knock back shots of the horrid Mexican poison at will until you chunder and then you will never be able to go near the drink again.
The same goes for a song by The Coral – lap it up but do so in the knowledge that lapping it up, will make you sick.
On Monday night, The Coral team hit the Astoria in Tottenham Court Road armed with material from a brand new album. They have yet to sell all their tickets which is a shame because as I said at the top, they are a decent band with decent songs.
But if you do go along – be warned – these guys are so infectious, they are dangerous.