The Coral - 'Something Inside Of Me' (Deltasonic)
2/5
By: Michael Lewin
So, 'The Invisible Invasion' is The Coral's FOURTH album? They lost me for a while back there - 'Dreaming of You' had its ubiquitous, inescapable bounce, sure, and 'Pass It On' something more mature and song-writerly, but then... pfff. They slipped off my radar completely. It's been quite nice to reacquaint myself with them. If only, I suppose, to remind me why I let them drift off into their own little Scouse pop niche beyond in the first place.
An album of wilful contradictions, determined weirdness and psychedelic befuddlement their new effort may be; music for the head that's tripped one too many times and knows a certain darkness beyond it, perhaps. But 'Something Inside of Me' is judged on its own here, lacking the security of a position amongst tracks where the interplay between every song casts the singular in the more favourable light of the collective. Its a throw back to classic British oomph pop, where 'London Calling's vitriol loses out to the malaise of unemployment, where The Jam's mod cool becomes dishevelled after a bong too many and where, seemingly, it's OK to sound like anglophiles the Dandy Warhol's intro to 'Get Off' but ignore that (very) vague hipster slack that just fails to save that irritating dirge.
Every bump and kick is a plea of desperation to escape the dreary banality of being holed up in a magnolia-paint-peeling, damp-stained council house living-room. There's mould in the cups, pasta sauce smeared and crusty on cracked plates, empty pizza boxes with grease-proof paper poking out, all contributing to the smell of stale, spilt beer, smoke and rotting human existence expressed in the 11.30am dreariness of a Wednesday morning without prospects, future or hope, surrounded by similarly forlorn folk whom you once called friends, and are now only united in habit and disgust, paranoia, mutually recognised self-loathing and an utter, complete inability to escape or even try. 'There's something inside of me,' Skelly croons - his voice the same as on every other damn Coral track - expressing the existential nausea of the unemployed stoner, realising belatedly a wasted life, painfully half-remembering living only to slip back into forgetfulness as the verse returns. Put this song on repeat and you'll understand: that three-second gap reminds you of every joy and pain and, well, feeling you've ever experienced, only to be numbed again by the song's return, sinking slowly and resignedly back into a crushing blankness.
So: 'Something Inside of Me' is an articulate and intelligent evocation of a deeply unpleasant existence that should, really, be left entirely unexpressed.
Artists in this article: The Coral
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment