The Coral - The Singles Collection

Back in 2002 The Coral had many a writer struggling to dissect their sound, (“psychedelic-Delta-Blues-Beefheart!” or something…). Four albums later and the task is depressingly simpler, their giddy appropriation of a hundred-and-one influences steadily reduced to Love and Neil Young. It’s a change the band seem uninterested in challenging with this retrospective: a ‘singles collection’ rather than a ‘best of’, so no room for anything from their experimental Nightfreak mini-album or early EPs like Skeleton Key, but space for token new single Being Somebody Else which traipses along in the same safe vein as last year’s Roots and Echoes. That said, when the bass of Dreaming Of You bounces out the speakers, it's easy to remember why everyone got so excited in the first place. Elsewhere, Pass It On still sounds effortlessly, infectiously breezy while a second disc of Mysteries And Rarities more fully explores the band’s early diversity. [Chris Buckle]