After coming back from a hiatus with 2016's
Distance Inbetween, a heavy, guitar-based album that reestablished the band and expanded their sound from their usual '60s worship to include some sounds from the '70s,
the Coral did what they do best on their next record and made a creative left turn. Released in 2018,
Move Through the Dawn gets rid of the furious guitar soloing, the pounding rhythms that felt like they were forged in a foundry, and the free-flowing arrangements that relied on lots of first takes to get a live feel. Instead, most of the record has the carefully constructed feel of an '80s
Jeff Lynne production, with clipped drums, layered acoustic and electric guitars, and sonic touches like Mellotron and super-clean vocal harmonies. The first three songs sound like they could have been on a
Traveling Wilburys album; "Eyes Like Pearls" and "Reaching Out for a Friend" have a loose-limbed, good-natured spirit whose warmth isn't constrained by the boxy production, while "Sweet Release" is a punchy robo-rocker that sounds simple on the surface but has the kind of hook that gets lodged deep in the brain.
James Skelly's vocals fit well in the updated surroundings; he delivers the songs here just as powerfully as he did on their more folk-psych offerings of the past. He soars over the sweeping tracks like "Strangers in the Hollow" with an almost breathtaking ease, while digging deep for some grit when that's called for, as on the bouncy "Love or Solution."