State Fayre | The Coral

The Coral 

Thanks to their knack for crafting sneakily good hooks, the jangling interplay of the guitars, and James Skelly's powerful vocals, the Coral are one of the most consistently enjoyable and unpredictable bands of their era. Their rambunctious sound deftly mixes elements of '60s garage rock, psychedelic pop, and folk-rock, spicing it with bits of Merseybeat, Motown, vintage blues, and even sea shanties. The band's 2002 self-titled debut album topped the U.K. charts, and even as their sound evolved over the years, taking detours to spooky folk on 2004's Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker, stripped-down indie pop on 2005's Portishead-produced The Invisible Invasion, and heavy '70s rock on 2016's Distance Inbetween, they stayed popular and influential. Time did nothing to dim their desire to explore new sonic avenues as 2021's Coral Island, a double-length concept album devoted to memories of English seaside resort towns, and 2023's country-rock with strings Sea of Mirrors proved.