The Coral: 'Put The Sun Back'

The music biz moves very fast these days. Only weeks ago people were tipping Adele to be the breakthrough artist of 2008, but, quicker than you can say NME backlash, she's being criticised for failing to spark a musical revolution with her first proper single. With MySpace continuing to spawn new "sensations" at a rate of knots, acts are finding it ever more difficult to cultivate loyal fan-bases and, crucially, last beyond that difficult second album. It's this conveyer-belt culture that makes the survival of oddball scouse-rockers The Coral such an incredible and delightful feat.

Most of The Coral's peers, such as US cod-metal singer Andrew WK, who they supported on the 2002 NME awards tour, have long since been relegated to the rock 'n' roll dustbin. However, the Liverpudlian band are still plugging away with their mixture of Captain Beefheart-style psychedelia and Beatles-y Merseybeat to relative success. Last year's Roots and Echoes album lacked the sea shanties and hypnotic rock of their debut, choosing to focus instead on soulful balladry and sensitive, old-fashioned song-writing. 'Put The Sun Back', an undoubted album highlight, sprinkles pop fairy dust over a beautifully simplistic melody and Ian Skelly's spine-tingling vocals. The result is a pretty terrific single.