THE CORONAS pride themselves in being Ireland’s biggest independent band. Their last album has been certified platinum and shot to the top of the Irish Indie chart back in 2009, beating U2 and Snow Patrol to the title of Meteor’s album of the year. However, they’re independent in name only. The 90s rave piano and nagging guitar riff of Addicted To Progress are aimed directly at the masses.
It’s as if somebody sat Two Door Cinema Club down in front of Downton Abbey and threatened them to be even blander. Then gave them a cup of cocoa and Michael Owen’s autobiography just to be sure. They must have been successful seeing as the chorus begins with the anaemic suggestion “If I had a rainbow…”. Fortunately it differs so little from the verse that precedes it that we don’t even have a nagging sense of disappointment. Just boredom.
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The biggest let down is that production genius Tony Hoffer is involved. Hoffer is man capable of creating absolute classics (his records with Beck and Idlewild are up there with the most exciting production work this century), however he seems to carrying on the trajectory his career has taken since he got involved with The Kooks: compressing the fuck out of everything to make it sound passable coming out of a shitty laptop. Hopefully if this helps him make some money he can get back to using his undoubted skill properly.
The Coronas online
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