The Coral are a funny wee band, this is their fourth record proper, fifth if you include 2004’s mini album Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker, and it seems for all their knowledge of 1960’s beatpop, soul and psychedelia they’ve never quite realised their full potential over the course of a long-player. Naturally the band have had numerous singles that hit the spot – ‘Pass It On’, ‘Dreaming of You’ and ‘In The Morning’ to name but a few, but on all of those tracks host albums the band seem to lose momentum. Once again this is the case with Roots and Echoes. Opening with the first single ‘Who’s Gonna Find Me’, with its Motown rhythm and serene guitars, the band set themselves up for a fall, as from then on in the album floats along merrily but never really hits any elevated status, neither does it hit a direful low however, so fans of the band may be quite content with this collection. Songs like ‘Jacqueline’ and ‘Not So Lonely’ have pleasant melodies and jingle jangle along lovingly enough but there’s no extra 10% being put in here by the band in terms of arrangement or instrumentation. After a while the songs just drift in to each other and I realise the album is over. So, a bit of Motown, a bit of Scott Walker and a bit of a non event all-in-all. As much as I want to like The Coral they’ve still got a long way to go to proving themselves as serious contenders, and at this stage in their career they really should be on top of this by now.
