W
ell, well, well.
It's
The Coral's 2nd album, released in the UK last July, and still not out here, despite The Coral having a third album ready for release in the UK any day now. So thank god for the power of the internet, especially eBay and CDwow.net in particular.
Somehow
Magic and Medicine was initially a bit of a disappointment. It fails to be nearly as happy as the self-titled first album. Also reined in is some of the musical exuberance — this album doesn't shift from style to style quite so often. That's not to say there aren't plenty of diverse touchstones here. The overall feel is mid-60's melodic pop, but that is selling it way short. But it's the simple story songs that get me coming back to the album, "Bill McCai" and "Leizah." Somehow "Bill McCai" reminds me of "Smithers-Jones" by
The Jam, as performed by a sped-up
Simon and Garfunkel. These two songs are saccharine sweet, but are about suicide and a user girlfriend respectively. If the whole album was full of these kind of songs, it would have been great. But there are too many songs that, although they sound great, in the end don't really go anywhere, relying on a change of pacing or style mid-song to add interest, but sometimes it just feels like it could have done with more focus. But then I don't think there is a band member older than 23 and some of them are 19 .... So really, I am blown away how they could come up with such a mature album. And to be more generous to some of the other songs here, they are rather atmospheric. I guess the most notable is "Don't Think You're the First," a western theme fit for a Clint Eastwood entrance. What does stay outstanding the whole way through, though, are the singer's voice and the production.
But now I have
Nightfreak and Sons of Becker to look forward to, released in the the UK on the 26th of January. It is meant to have been recorded quickly and will only be seeing a limited 100,000 release in the UK. Judging from the sales of
Magic and Medicine, it won't be around long. I am glad mine is on order.
[Ed. note: Columbia records is listing the US release of
Magic and Medicine as Feb. 10. All "first pressings" will also include a copy of
Nightfreaks and the Sons of Becker.]
