The Invisible Invasion

The Invisible Invasion is the fourth studio album by English rock band the Coral. It was released on 23 May 2005, through Deltasonic. Following on from the stop-gap release of the mini album Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker (2004), the band began recording their next album with Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley of Portishead as producers. Sessions were mainly held at Monnow Valley Studio, with additional recording being done at Elevator Studios. Described as a psychedelia album, it had more of a stripped-down sound compared to their past releases.

"In the Morning" was released as the lead single to The Invisible Invasion on 9 May 2005. The Coral supported with performances at the Glastonbury and T in the Park festivals, alongside a support slot for three Oasis gigs; guitarist Bill Ryder-Jones was absent due to a stress-related illness. The album's second single "Something Inside of Me" was released on 22 August 2005, which was followed by an appearance at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. The band went on a tour of the United Kingdom in October 2005, and closed out the year with two more shows in that territory.

The Invisible Invasion received generally favourable reviews from music critics, with some highlighting its stripped-down nature. It peaked at number five in the UK, while also charting in France, Ireland, and Japan. The album would later be certified gold in the UK, while "In the Morning" was certified silver. Both of the album's singles charted in the UK, while "In the Morning" also charted in Ireland, and "Something Inside of Me" also charted in Scotland.

Background and production

The Coral released their second studio album Magic and Medicine in July 2003. Its four singles – "Don't Think You're the First", "Pass It On", "Secret Kiss", and "Bill McCai" – all reached the top 30 of the UK Singles Chart, with "Pass It On" peaking the highest at number five. In January 2004, the band released Nightfreak and the Sons of Becker, a mini album that acted as a stop-gap release until they could begin work on their third studio album. The Invisible Invasion was produced by Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley of Portishead; the majority of it was recorded at Monnow Valley, with the exception of "A Warning to the Curious", which was recorded at Elevator Studios in Liverpool. Additional recording for "She Sings the Mourning", "Cripples Crown", "So Long Ago", "Far from the Crowd", and "Arabian Sand" was done at Elevator, with assistance Matthew Edge. Utley served as engineer for all the recordings, with assistance from Steve Davis and Edge. Barrow, Utley and Craig Silvey mixed the recordings at Moles Studio in Bath, with mix engineer Nick Joplin, and assistance from Paul Corkett. The album was then mastered by Frank Arkwright at Whitfield Street Studios. It had more of a stripped-down sound than their past releases. James Skelly said "Cripples Crown" referred to a "rock in Runcorn that me and Ian [Skelly] used to say Jesus threw the devil off." The folk-pop song "So Long Ago" is a homage to the Wright brothers, and is followed by the new wave track "The Operator".

"A Warning to the Curious" was compared to "My White Devil" (1983) by Echo & the Bunnymen. "Something Inside of Me" recalled the work of Madness. "Come Home" sees the narrator waiting for his partner to come home, which is continued into "Far from the Crowd"; the latter includes a tribal beat. Two versions were released on CD in the UK: the first with "Leeslunchboxbyblueleadandthevelcrounderpants", while the second featured "Gina Jones", "The Image of Richard Burton as Crom", and the music video for "In the Morning". The Invisible Invasion was released on 23 May 2005, through Deltasonic; its title is taken from "Something Inside of Me". Following this, they appeared at Glastonbury Festival and T in the Park, and supported Oasis for three shows; Ryder-Jones was absent from these shows due to a stress-related illness.

"Something Inside of Me" was released as a single on 22 August 2005. Two versions were released on CD in the UK: the first with "The Conjurer", while the second included "The Case of Arthur Tannen", "The Box", and the music video for "Something Inside of Me". Following this, the band performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals. In October 2005, the band went on a tour of the UK. In November 2005, it was revealed that Sony was distributing albums with Extended Copy Protection, a controversial feature that automatically installed rootkit software if played on any Microsoft Windows machine. Alongside being unable to copy CDs, the software reported the users' listening habits back to Sony and exposed the computer to malicious attacks via exploits. In spite of Sony refusing to release a list of the affected albums, the Electronic Frontier Foundation identified The Invisible Invasion as one of the discs with the software. The band closed the year with two UK shows in December 2005.

Extended copy protection

In the fall of 2005, The Invisible Invasion appeared on a list of the 52 CD releases from Sony BMG that were identified as having been shipped with the controversial Extended Copy Protection (XCP) computer software, which, in addition to preventing a copy of the disc from being made, was identified by many security software vendors as having also reported the users' listening habits back to Sony and also exposed any Microsoft Windows computer known to have the CD inserted to malicious attacks that exploited insecure features of the rootkit software. Sony discontinued use of the technology on 11 November 2005, and recalled this and other titles affected by XCP, and asked customers to submit copies affected by the software to the company so that it could replace them with copies that did not contain the software.

Reception

The Invisible Invasion was met with generally favourable from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 73, based on 21 reviews. "Something Inside of Me"

peaked at number 42 in the UK, and number 83 in Scotland. The Invisible Invasion was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), while "In the Morning" went silver.

Track listing

Writing credits per booklet.

The Coral

James Skelly – vocals, guitar
Lee Southall – guitar, backing vocals
Bill Ryder-Jones – guitar
Paul Duffy – bass guitar, backing vocals
Nick Power – keyboards, backing vocals
Ian Skelly – drums

Production and design

Geoff Barrow – producer, mixing
Adrian Utley – producer, engineer, mixing
Steve Davis – assistant engineer (all except track 5)
Matthew Edge – assistant engineer (track 5), additional recordings assistance (tracks 1–3, 9 and 11)
Craig Silvey – mixing
Nick Joplin – assistant mix engineer
Paul Corkett – additional mix assistant
Claire Lewis – additional monitoring assistant
Frank Arkwright – mastering
Ian Skelly – art, design
Kevin Power – art, design

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"

|+Chart performance for The Invisible Invasion

! scope="col"| Chart (2005)

! scope="col"| Peak position

! scope="row"| Japan (Oricon)

|align="center"| 53

References

External links

The Invisible Invasion at YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)