Staff Reviews

The Coral - Distance Inbetween

Review by Cai Trefor

Their golden hour may be just on the horizon»

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After a five-year hiatus The Coral return in 2016 with their eighth studio album, 'Distance Inbetween' on Ignition Records. 'Distance Inbetween' is The Coral's first album of original material since 2010's 'Butterfly House', a gap punctuated by last year's surprise release of their lost album, 'The Curse of Love'. Since their debut EP release in 2001 the band have sold over a million UK albums, with five reaching the Top 10 including 2003's chart-topping 'Magic and Medicine'. Their eight Top 40 singles include 'Dreaming Of You', 'In The Morning', 'Pass It On', and 'Don't Think You're The First'. Recorded at Liverpool's Parr Street Studio with co-producer Richard Turvey, 'Distance Inbetween' was recorded live and mostly in just one take. The seams of each of the album's 12-tracks are purposely rough-hewn and pave the way for a new visceral sound from a totally re-energised band. "Before we started making the album we had discussed that we wanted it to be more minimal and rhythmical," explains James Skelly (vocals, guitars). "We thought 'if you've got a rhythm section that's been playing together for almost twenty years, why not make that the centre of the songs?'" On the album James, Ian Skelly (drums / percussion / vocals), Nick Power (keyboard / vocals), and Paul Duffy (bass / keyboards / vocals) are joined by Coral newbie, guitarist Paul Molloy, formerly of The Zutons. "Paul was playing with Ian in their band, Serpent Power, and we'd all been mates with him for years," says James. "We already had a couple of tunes recorded and Ian suggested Paul add some guitar. His parts really enhanced the tracks; he understood where he needed to leave space. From that point we didn't look back. We had a full line-up and were confident we could make an album that would stand next to the others." On 'Distance Inbetween' listeners are invited into The Coral's world of Richard Yates' books, Alan Moore comics, 1980's toys, the sound of krautrock compilations and Muddy Waters' Electric Mud, and Gregory Crewdson's darkly beautiful photography.
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