The Coral - Magic and Medicine
(Deltasonic)
The problem with the Brits' "Flavor of the Week" approach to music journalism is that it elevates incompetent crap to incomprehensible heights at an editor's whim in order to sell newspapers. As a result, us Yanks are constantly subjected to unlistenable shite and can do little more than shrug our shoulders and scratch our heads and await the next candidate. Please! Deliver us from evil. But until then, we're left to ponder the cheesy, Pythonesque "And Now For Something Completely Different" organ intro that opens the continuing Kink-y exploits of Arthur "In the Forest" on this Northern England (outside Liverpool) sextet's sophomore effort. "Don't Think You're The First" is an expansive, Morriconi-ish, western-flavored ditty in the style of "Baby The Rain Must Fall" or any of those weepy Roy Orbison epics that folks like Cliff Richard probably tossed off in their sleep back in the day - and it's just as silly and pretentious now as it was 40+ years ago. "Liezah" is sung by a hick with a walking stick and is as backwoods as its phonetic spelling. It kinds sounds like Poco-meets-New Riders and is one of the highlights.
The loungy doo-wop cha cha of "Secret Kiss," complete with twangy guitar solo nicked form the James Bond theme is appallingly sad and misguided and by the time we reach the smoky, Threepenny Opera antics of "Milkwood Blues," it's clear this band hasn't got a clue what they want to sound like and have instead opted to dump the kitchen sink in our laps. So, on "Bill McCai" they try and cross Adam and the Ants with Anthony Newley, and end up splitting the difference and giving us Neil Diamond instead. By album's end ("Eskimo Lament," "Careless Hands," etc.), we've deteriorated into a Holiday Inn-circuit lounge act with boring, sappy ballads which can only mean one thing: brace yourself for a James Skelly solo album within the next year. You've been warned.
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