Picture the scene if you will: you're sat in your parents' front room in Liverpool with the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd rolling the spliffs, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention jamming in the corner, and The La's looking on in wondrous bemusement before joining in.
Mad? Possibly, but that is the scene that rolls through the mind as The Coral's debut long-player comes to an end. A more disparate and yet strangely coherent collection of moods and styles you will not hear this year outside a supremely eclectic compilation.
If further evidence is required, try this: opener 'Spanish Main' rocks and rattles like a pirate ship cast adrift off the Tropic of Cancer while the drunken crew of scallies shout about "heading for the Spanish Main". 'I Remember When' begins like a Nick Cave murder ballad before running off down the road in a car marked "Doors concert this way", then screeching to a halt and beginning the whole process again.
'Shadows Fall' can only be described as 'Spaghetti Reggae' with a dusty harmonica ushering in a Morricone-style chorus telling a tale of retribution and repent over a Studio 1 beat. Then it goes into a jazzy shuffle. Convinced yet?
'Simon Diamond' tells of a man turned to vegetation, who "swapped his legs for roots/His arms and soil are in cahoots" in some of the most bizarre imagery since early Floyd and, wait for it, Peter Gabriel-era Genesis. The sheer, unadulterated cacophony of 'Skeleton Key' is the highlight of the second half of the album which flags ever so slightly before 'Calendars And Clocks' brings more nursery rhyme allusions over what sounds initially like a Spanish folk song.
Frontman James Skelly symbolises the schizophrenic nature of the band's music, recalling legendary Animals frontman Eric Burdon and Jim Morrison in the power and depth of his voice on 'I Remember When' but sounding uncannily like Lee Mavers on the (by the rest of the album's standards) relatively conventional beat-pop of 'Dreaming Of You'.
'The Coral' is the sound of a band saying "Why don't we try this" as they attempt to distil all of their influences into one exhilarating musical soup - which is kind of the whole point of debut albums. And while most bands wouldn't dream of throwing in anywhere near as disparate a range of styles, that only makes the end result more unique. Weird but mostly wonderful.
