Closer to you --- The Coronas --- 2011 (3u)
Although virtually unknown outside their native Ireland, the Coronas are big news here and just waiting to make the giant leap to international stardom. They've twice been nominated for the Meteor Awards, winning one for their last album. They've supported the likes of Paul McCartney and fellow Irish rockers The Script, and have twice appeared at one of Ireland's biggest outdoor music festivals, Oxegen. This is their third, and most recent album.
“What you think you know” opens the album well, with jangly guitar and squealing electric, and the song bops along nicely with a sense of Aslan mixed with INXS. Things continue to rock along for “Mark my words”, where The Coronas really start to come into their own, with a very commercial song that would I think have had great potential as a single. Great hook here, and the song really hangs together well, some fine guitar from Danny O'Reilly, who also handles the lead vocals, and is helped out on the guitar by Dave McPhilips. Lovely little, somewhat unexpected, restrained piano ending, and then we're into the title track.
A lowdown funky stride, this smoulders along on Graham Cox's exquisite bassline before Conor Egan's staccato drums ramp everything up, then drop back and allow the bass to take over again, keyboards from O'Reilly peppering the song with little flashes of colour, some harder guitar coming in from McPhilips, the song taking on quite a Big Country feel, especially in the vocal lines of Danny O'Reilly. It ends quite abruptly though, and then “Dreaming again” is a big, expansive half-ballad, with more than a touch of Irish traditional music in it, with a chorus that just demands a sea of waving arms, people swaying side to side in ecstasy. Definitely an infectious song.
Nothing here is particularly long, with the average song length being in the three to four minute mark, with only one or two going over that, and even then only by a few seconds. “Blind will lead the blind” is one of the longer songs, just a second shy of the four minutes, and has an interesting percussion line, almost tribal in its way, the song itself relatively restrained but with Danny on song, as it were, guitars carrying the main melody, while the lead single from the album opens on a piano line quickly joined by boppy keyboards as “Addicted to progress” gets going. You can see how this was selected as the first single, as it's very catchy and very airplay-friendly. Big, friendly guitars vie with the funky piano melody for supremacy, and above it all rises without any effort the voice of Danny, the heartbeat of The Coronas.
That heartbeat is thumping proudly as the acoustic-led “My god” slips in, Danny's voice taking command of the song while the twin guitars jangle along, electric joining acoustic as the song progresses. Lovely little bit of mandolin weaves through the melody, though I'm unsure as to who's playing it as they don't seem to be credited. More acoustic guitar on “Dreaming again part 2 (Wait for you)”, but it's soon pushed out by electric in a mid-paced slow rocker with anthemic ambitions. It's essentially the same basic melody as “Dreaming again”, but sufficiently changed as to sound like a completely separate song.
“Write to me” is probably the closest we get to a ballad, but it's a swinging, swaying one with a big acoustic chorus and some dour keyboards setting the tone; nice little song indeed. Danny manages to inject a real note of desperation into the vocal, and things stay relatively slow for “Different ending”, with some really deep, introspective keyboard and piano work from Danny O'Reilly, slick little guitar brushstrokes added by Dave McPhilips, and steady, measured drumming from Conor Egan, Graham Cox adding the bassline to the rhythm section. The song gets a little more mid-paced as it goes along, and becomes a little different to your average ballad, great vocals also from Danny, the tension in the song increasing until it fades out on light piano, then we're into the closer, “Make it happen”.
With a really smooth bluesy guitar opening, the song suddenly comes to life as the electric guitar is wound up and blasts out, then everything falls back as Danny comes in with the vocal, and then the music comes back in strength in a sort of striding boogie rhythm. That doesn't last though, and it's back to the arrangement that opened the song, with some really effective and emotive guitar and keys, the song fading out on an instrumental ending, there having been very little really in the way of vocals on the track at all.
It's easy to see why The Coronas are so popular here, because apart from their obvious musical ability and the great vocals of Danny O'Reilly, the thing that shines through about this band is their workmanlike approach to their music, as well as their honesty. You really get the feeling this is not an album written to get hit singles. If that happens then fine, but it's not the point of the thing, and nothing has been contrived or manufactured to be a hit. It's music for those who love and appreciate music, and taken in that vein, this is one hell of an album.
TRACKLISTING
1. What you think you know
2. Mark my words
3. Closer to you
4. Dreaming again
5. Blind will lead the blind
6. My god
7. Addicted to progress
8. Dreaming again part 2 (Wait for you)
9. Write to me
10. Different ending
11. Make it happen