The Coral: The Coral

Liverpool's long nautical tradition might explain the many seagoing references on The Coral's self-titled debut. The past five decades of music explains the rest. Like those bedroom geniuses who flood the Internet with mash-ups that connect the dots between Missy Elliott and The Cure (to choose one example), The Coral possesses a mad sense of democracy and a clear willingness to embrace a abundance of musical styles. Sure, just about any campus-circuit jam band can make the same boast, but few if any can claim the discipline to twist them all into pop songs spanning four minutes or less. There's a formula behind it all, but it's a good one. Most Coral songs start out sounding like lost Nuggets gems, take a turn, and then turn back again, steered along by James Skelly's powerful vocals. The gorgeous first single "Goodbye" begins with the thrust of a classic guitar riff, finds a mod-ish groove, launches into a spacey trip-out complete with a countdown, and then finds its way back to earth. Had the band not approached it with such skill and obvious joy, it might run the risk of sounding indulgent, but The Coral sounds happy to let its old 45s melt together in a glorious puddle, permitting Jamaican dub and Russian folk music to sound as if they all spawned from the same garage as "Louie Louie." Amazingly, the band's oldest member only just reached drinking age (in the U.S., at least), which makes the group that much more remarkable. If The Coral sounds this delightfully unpredictable when it's just warming up, just imagine what it'll sound like once it gets going.