I watched the movie ‘Yesterday’ last night, the one about an aspiring singer-songwriter who discovers that the world has no memory or knowledge of The Beatles after a worldwide 12 second power cut. He uses this freak, unexplained circumstance to raid his memory of the Beatles catalogue and claim their songs as his own originals and realise worldwide fame and acclaim as the worlds greatest songwriter; a status emphasised by his eclipsing even the mighty Ed Sheeran. Much like the Fab Four I am all about spreading the love so I’ll set aside my personal feelings about Ed and give him kudos for being able to laugh at himself and at least acknowledge, on film, that the Beatle catalgue is greater than his own.

I enjoyed the film, after all it was a vehicle for a musical picture largely based around the Beatles catalogue, how could I not? And while there were representations of the John Lennon and George Harrison contributions to the canon, there were undoubtedly prime feature status given to the Paul McCartney numbers which, if you saw my ruminations in this months playlist, you’ll know is something on my musical mind right now. Yes I have been found guilty of undervaluing the work of McCartney but, as the man himself once said, it can take time for things to cut through and I too am a firm believer that the best stuff rises to the top eventually. That is proving true with McCartney but I am certain the sheer volume of great work produced by The Coral will prove ripe for rediscovery eventually too.

To just refer back to the film a moment longer, the scenes that rang most true in terms of the music scene today were those immediately after the lead character had realised the world no longer aware of The Beatles and he began presenting the songs as his own new works. Nothing happened, he continued to fall below the radar and would-be defining moments like the unveiling of his great new piece, in this case ‘Let It Be’, were flattened by short attention spans and untimely mobile phone interruptions. That’s how things are nowadays, great songwriters are not presenting to a world ready to give its appreciation to nuanced compositions of melodic splendour and structural inventiveness. A band like The Coral are a prime example of this. To the casual observer they may well remain filed away as psychedelic scousers from the early noughties who briefly rode the wave of garage rock revivalism that shone a while as the White Stripes blasted into the mainstream. They may not have paid quite such close attention to the fact that for nearly 20 years now, The Coral have carried on making music in a similar vein that has never dropped off in quality. The trouble is all too often, just being very good at the craft of songwriting isn’t news, it doesn’t grab the attention it deserves and can be taken a little for granted.

There is so much to be fascinated by in the two decades of Coral and related music making endeavours. So many incredible songs, I fully intend to go deeper over the time and write a lot more on here in appreciation of one of Liverpool’s greatest ever bands. For now though, I am drawing your attention to this years monstrous concept album ‘Coral Island’. Constructed in the style of an old sixties classic a-la ‘Ogdens Nut Gone Flake’ and complete with spoken word narratives between songs courtesy of James Skelly’s grandad, it is a record that is made to be experienced on vinyl and easily one of the essential albums of 2021. I urge you to get a copy here: https://www.discogs.com/The-Coral-Coral-Island/release/18541153