Day 0939 - The Coral

The Coral "The Coral" (2002)

What the what?!

Another situation where I was familiar with the name but for some reason assumed this band was one of the indie rock groups making the scene at the time; far from it! This album mixes a punky raucousness with melodic sensibility.  Musical control with wild abandon.  The whole thing is smothered in vocal harmonies which is something that (if you're keeping track) I love.

"Goodbye" has jazzy fusiony vamps.  "Shadows Fall" has a Specials-esque bit of moody two-tone with folky vocals that suddenly launch into a burst of hot jazz and plays out with a cool ping-pong vocal thing.  "I Remember When" moves between slow morose alt-rock and bursts into an explosive almost punky rock for the chorus and rounds out on a sort of klezmer section.

It's a definite "all sounds considered" approach that wraps in rock, folk, jazz, balladry, reggae, sea shanty, indie rock.  Music for the sake of music, and I love it!

Day 0874 - Moon Safari

 Air “Moon Safari” (1998) – got it

Another French electro-pop group.  Air is duo Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, and this is their first full-length album, following an initial EP release.

The sound is kind of like a mix of 50s east coast (smooth) jazz and 70s/80s analogue synthesizers.  This is perfectly laid out on album opener “La Femme D’argent” which features extended keyboard and bass vamps over a looped beat and sound effects.   As if it didn’t sound laid back enough, they overdub the sound of gentle rain to really ram home the point.

Single “Sexy Boy” kicks in next all squelchy bass, washy synth sounds, and catchy vocal melodies.   “Kelly Watch the Stars” is a favourite of mine, as is "Remember" which moves from reflective, relaxed melody, robot vocals to an almost sci-fi b-movie sound.

A relaxing and musically enjoyable album that hits extra sweet spots for me as I bought it when I was living in Leeds in the UK, so it kind of takes me back there a bit.