The Coral
Butterfly House

It seems impossible to me not to find a review of such an album on this site. As for the Coral, they are probably one of the most genuine bands in the current indie scene. A group that deeply draws from the sixties and seventies, recreating it all with passion and emotion. In their career, they have released 6 albums in 8 years (a record these days), each with its own distinctive trait and all decidedly good. The latest of the lot, released in the height of summer (the day I finished my first quarter of a century), Butterfly House is perhaps one of the best indie albums of 2010.

It is indisputably the most mature album of the Hoylake group, profoundly different from its predecessors, especially for the more melancholic mood and the compositional ability, all topped off with an attention to sound that was always lacking in the other albums. Which still lets us know that this album was released in 2000 and not in 1971.

Where do the influences come from? Difficult to list them all. Psychedelia and folk for sure, among the various groups I would point out the Byrds and the Grateful Dead, particularly regarding the handling of the choirs. And precisely the evolution of the vocals, very refined and seductive, is one of the distinctive traits of Butterfly House. Accompanying is an incredible variety of sound and an abundance of instruments that shows how the Latin proverb often tells the truth (the Coral are seven and almost all are multi-instrumentalists).

The album unfolds among evocative ballads and other tracks that remotely trace the band's ramshackle beginnings, except nothing ramshackle remains. It's difficult to name titles, however, it's impossible not to mention the excellent chorus of More Than A Lover or the subsequent Roving Jewel. The melancholic title track is a perfect soundtrack for English summer rains, just as the single A 1000 Years is very good; among the ballads led by an acoustic guitar, Walking In The Winter or Falling Around With You definitely deserve a mention. As does deserve a note for the complexity and the "acid" attitude of the concluding North Parade, with its six minutes.

Derivative has been said, and it's easy to hear the influences and sources, yet with each release these guys manage to give us 40 minutes of emotion and excellent music. Not bad these days.

8.0