The Coral have released a new single and video as a precursor to to the release of two new albums later this year on Friday, 8 September 2023. This is the first new single since the epic double album ‘Coral Island’ released back in 2021 (and lauded by us here).
Ever a band to avoid repetition, ‘Wild Bird’ eschews the standard indie tropes by delivering a wild west-inflected ballad sweeping in on a luscious bed of strings and reverb. The video echoes the attitudes and tones of Sergio Leone – the band elegantly performing like extras in a spaghetti western, posed and enigmatic.
Imagining the scorched sand, cardboard cowboys and flooded sets of a never-made Italian spaghetti western, the single snaps the clapperboard on a new story playing out all the way to the release of Sea Of Mirrors, the band’s eleventh studio album ‘proper’. Amidst the songwriting that followed ‘Coral Island’, it a script was written by keyboard player, Nick Power, and vintage cinema foyer poster artwork was created by drummer, Ian Skelly that confirmed Sea Of Mirrors’ vivid concept and the blueprint for the next phase on the band’s epic journey.
The Coral are true to form by not just releasing astounding music but creating an entire world to be immersed in: fantastical journeys that stimulate all senses. Two albums are on the way – ‘Sea of Mirrors’ and physical formats only ‘Holy Joe’s Coral Island Medicine Show’.
Songwriter and guitarist James Skelly explains the formation of the work:
After we’d put ‘Coral Island’ to bed, our co-producer, Chris Taylor at Parr Street asked us if we wanted to make the last album ever made at the studios. We didn’t really have any new songs at that point so… I just sat down and wrote some. It got to points where we were going in and just writing things in there, on the day. It kind of felt like the walls were crumbling around us as we were in there recording every day.
I took what we’d done home and started to realise that we might have made two albums. There was one that had more of a story to it, sounding in a way like our version of country, the other a bit more stream of consciousness. At that point, it’s a case of wondering: well, what haven’t we done?
You can stream ‘Wild Bird’ here and pre-order the albums here.
Let the adventures begin.
