When I'm Dreaming of Them - #8 The Coral - Butterfly House

Another day, another album. Well, that is how this whole thing works, pay attention now.

And on we go, to The Coral's latest album, Butterfly House.

It seems like a lifetime ago that the Liverpool band hit the big time with Dreaming of You, the song that almost everyone will have danced and had a singalong to at some points in their lives. If you haven't, you probably shouldn't be reading this blog anyway, but I'll let you off, just make sure you check it out as soon as we are done here.

So, the new album. Does it have anything on it to match that epic t.u.n.e? Frankly, no, no it does not, but that isn't to say that this isn't a good record, it is, but when you release a single of such quality, it becomes something of a yardstick to measure everything else against. And it's quite the track to live up to.

There's nothing particuarly wrong with Butterfly House, but I can't say that it's the most inspiring listen that I'll ever have, in fact, it's not even the best listen that the Challenge has seen so far. It's just a band making good, solid music, without ever really being too risky.

Musically, most of it is pretty gentle, which I didn't expect, although I didn't approach it really knowing what I was going to come across. It sounds very polished, and I imagine it was in production for a fair old while. All of the sounds fit together nicely and such, I just wish they had cut loose a bit more.

I am actually, strangely, reminded of the War of the Worlds soundtrack when I listen to this. No, there is none of Richard Burton's narration, but a couple of songs seem to bring Forever Autumn to mind for me. Don't ask why, there is probably no logical explanation, and I'd be surprised if anyone at all agreed, but then again, I have always been a bit 'special' like that.

I don't really know what else to say about this one. I haven't really gone into great detail about any of the tracks on Butterfly House, but then again, I didn't find much to go into detail about on here...

I'll almost certainly still be there when they are playing at the festival though. Even if I have to stand through 45 minutes of pretty non-descript songs, it will all still be worth it when they crack it up to 11 and blast out Dreaming of You. The point of looking at this album wasn't to delve into the past, but up until they hit the stage at Glasto', I'll be Dreaming of That.