After hearing The Coral, Butterfly House free download track back in May we had big expectations for the album, and despite a slightly ropey start, it hits them easily and goes a step above with the bonus tracks in the extended 2 CD Limited Edition LP.
More Than a Lover and Roving Jewel open up The Coral’s 5th full studio album with a mix of dreamy chords, arpeggio riffs and guitar blasts, but neither of the songs are particularly great. The vocals grate a little and have a slight hint of Americanisation that sounds a bit out of place. Both songs have their moments, but they never quite achieve likableness.
Walking in The Winter doesn’t exactly light the album up either, but it’s a nice song to listen to and the more you hear it, the more it grows on you with it’s tambourine taps, slide note and roving finger picking. Sandhills is another melody laced track with some good points, but nothing to make it very memorable.
Butterfly House, however, is one of the best songs on the album. We’ve even starting to appreciate the random talking part way through (in a weird Richard Burton, War of the Worlds kind of way). The vocals are much improved and the melody addictive. The freak out end is a beast and sets it apart massively as the first impact song of the album.
Green Is The Colour starts brilliantly with flicking jangles before breaking into another summer’s day of a reverb laced song that builds on the strength of Butterfly House. Bright acoustic finger-picking opens up Falling All Around You, which confirms the turning point as the start of the better songs of the album start to kick in. The finger-picking is blended with simple backing vocals and perfectly placed piano.
Two Faces is straight from the sixties, with a cool surf-guitar tremolo, and She’s Coming Around has got some great drum beats, which builds the tempo of the album up perfectly to 1000 Years. Coming in like a psych-folk wonder, it’s got a really catchy chorus and a huge, spiralling instrumental. It’s the band’s first single from the album and it’s getting some pretty good airplay on the radio right now.
Surf guitars are back on Coney Island, which would fit seamlessly on MGMT’s Congratulations. Psych-surf riffs and a trippy circus ending make it the most interesting song on the album. North Parade is an epic beast that swings from a great melodic tune into a wild psycho-surf ending with crashing cymbals and heavy riffs, ending the album brilliantly. If you listen for long enough there’s a mini piano ending to cap it all off.
Butterfly House is a great summer album that doesn’t start amazingly, but after the title song, it’s all good. If you’ve got the chance to get the limited edition, get it, because the extra tracks are great and fit in brilliantly with the rest of record. Retro and sixties-inspired, it’s a great reinvention of classic sounds.
The Coral, Butterfly House album review: 4.3/5
