The Coral – 388

Mercury Prize-nominated The Coral, most well-known for their hooky single Dreaming of You and their 60s garage-rock inspired sound, are back with an unexpected shift in genre with their 13^th studio album 388: a summer-ready collection of unexpected Jamaican rocksteady-infused tracks that are exceptionally joyous, reggae-laden and soulful.

388 begins with Let the Music Play. Inspired by the second-hand cassette’s of The Wailers and Lee Scratch Perry the group would collect as youngsters, the track is a catchy yet somewhat sombre callback to The Coral’s early years that is filled with layered rocksteady textures from choppy muted electric guitars, syncopated percussion and blaring but well-restrained horns that even veer off into spaghetti Western territory with an Ennio Morricone-esque sequence that bookends the chorus.

Ride That Train follows suit, a ska-styled number with a simple yet wonderfully catchy vocal chorus, an organ-styled hook, gospel-esque “ooos” and “wahs” backing vocal runs and the light touch of a descending bass-line that drives the track onwards. Leave it in the Past, the stand-out of the album, kicks off with a familiar Jamaican “one-drop” drumroll and twinkly keys, and is brimming with exuberant energy and good vibes. It sums up what one can expect from 388 – bright, energetic and full-hearted music that feels spontaneous yet well-controlled, collaborative but with direction, with excellent production that’s somehow never overly complicated or overwrought (at their own admission, tracks were reportedly recorded in three takes or less, and it shows for the better).

The cinematic Yellow Moon stands out as a darker, more tightly formulated entry. Much like Let the Music Play before it, there’s a classic 1960s Western film feel to it with its percussive drive, upstroked electric guitar shuffle, and its intermittent vocal harmonies and low-key wave of organ that envelops the tune with a soft, melancholic chime.

Oftentimes bands that look to recreate a sound of a bygone era run the risk of delivering marketable nostalgia to their audience in place of true originality and can inadvertently release a record that lands on listeners as self-indulgent, overly self-aware and lacking what made their chosen genre so enjoyable in the first place. That is not the case with The Coral, who, remarkably, recorded 388 in just two weeks and have created an album that breathes new life into a vintage sound that all the while feels authentically The Coral.