The Coral - Butterfly House

I promised to expand this blog into new areas, so I'm going to review the new album from one of my favourite bands in the world - The Coral - who have come up with their first album since the masterpiece that was 2007's Roots and Echoes. Their new album entitled Butterfly House is no huge leap from their previous ones, in some ways it moves forward but in other ways it seems a backward step,

It all starts off well enough with one of my favourite songs off the album, "More Than A Lover", which hints at a more intense album, but is ultimately a just a very good Coral song, expanding on what has come before, and one of the few instantly catchy songs on the album. Leading on from that "Roving Jewel" hints at an expanded sound, with the use of a harmonica building on a typically Coral melody.

The album has its share of memorable songs, "1000 Years" the first single off the album is the closest the band get to a "Dreaming Of You" type song, and like the first track is instantly catchy, but despite the fact that the band try to expand on their sound, it's arguable whether they improve it.

There are other good songs on the album however, "Green Is The Colour" has a slower tempo than most Coral songs and the album benefits from this change up, as it does from the calmer tones of "Walking In The Winter." "Falling All Around You" does what it tries to well as a pretty acoustic and piano driven number, and "Coney Island" shows what the band can do sometimes when they try something new, being perhaps their darkest song to date, with an off kilter edge and circus type vibe.

This album in many ways seems trapped between continuing to churn out very good songs which are a bit repetitive, and trying to change things and make this their magnum opus. This is most obviously shown through the differences between "Into The Sun" which instantly feels like you've heard it before with the melody bearing some similarities to several songs off their previous albums and the darker "Coney Island which sounds slightly more like their eponymous debut but with an extra edge.

Despite some of the flaws, I would give the album 3 and 1/2 stars, and recommend it for further listening. There are seventeen good songs on the Butterfly House and that may well be too many. There are no complete flops on the album but it, just goes on for too long. If you cut out the last four songs and the bloated "North Parade" you come out with another 4 star Coral album which delivers a sharp set of good tunes.