Coronet Blue CD Review
Coronet Blue
Welcome To The Arms Of Forever
Laughing Outlaw LORCD105
*
Potential super group produces not very super album
This album serves as a salutary lesson to those who think that bringing together musicians with decent pedigrees into a new band will automatically produce something of musical worth. Wrong, wrong, and wrong again. The culprits here include Mitch Easter and Don Dixon (of REM, Marshall Crenshaw and a legion of others production fame), Ian McLagan (Small Faces, Faces, Billy Bragg) and Simon Kirke (Free, Bad Company). Pride of place in the hall of infamy though goes to the least known member, one John Rooney, late of Australian band Lonely Hearts (me neither), singer and prime mover.
From the hideously prog-rock title to the very last note the album epitomises disappointment. Sure it’s well produced, slick and shiny, lots of texture, but it’s all surface gloss, there’s no heart or soul. The main reason for that is simple; there aren’t any decent songs. Consider the triteness of ‘Even the planets are standing in line/In love there is one I must surely find’ (The Point) or the banality of ‘You say there is no karma/For all of the things you do/Well baby, this makes you look so much better/than those who smile while they kill’ (You Don’t Sleep At Night) as just two instances amongst many. Musically it’s just as devoid of ideas. The portentous title track is 1970s Pink Floyd (very) lite, The Point is equally low budget ELO, Waiting for My Baby power-pop that’s more Eveready than Duracell and there are way too many British Invasion references.
The most interesting thing about listening to this album is watching the timer click over and working out how many seconds to go before it finishes. Avoid. JS