The world’s deep-fried future doesn’t look any rosier to The Coral’s Paul Molloy, so he sings the brass-gilded, hot-stepping soundtrack to humanity dancing their way to oblivion on his latest single, Apocalypso – OUT NOW. In a world where saintliness is overshadowed by the work of scoundrels, Molloy’s second sneak-peak of what lies in store on his upcoming album, The Madmen Of Apocalypso, paints a picture of heavenly redemption still being possible. But on just one condition.
Following up his 2020 debut solo album, The Fifth Dandelion, and after The Coral’s own resurgence with a run of uncompromisingly expansive, instant-classic albums since 2021’s Coral Island, Molloy’s borderless exploration of musical history and modern planetary ills come together on his 11-track “musical satire of the Apocalypse.” Picking up as many cues from the furthest flung corners of 24-hour news and eccentrics caught on camera as pop history’s greatest storytellers, the multi-instrumentalist’s strange new world holds mirrors up to the weirdness of this bad old world.
Circling off-leash, Walls And Bridges-era John Lennon and the freedom of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s late-60’s Beatles-endorsed run of form, Apocalypso’s one-way-ticket upstairs into nirvana rather than to the fiery basement of hell is bought by learning the moves and dancing past God’s gatekeeper.
He says: “This track plays a central role in the album. A bit of wordplay, it’s essentially a send up dance craze tune à la the Macerna, Watusi, The Monkey, Jerk or The Twist, but set to a calypso rock n’ roll beat with inverted Biblical lyrics and mariachi horns. A new-fangled dance that grants the participants access to Heaven when they die, depending on their level of skill at the dance.
“With the dance judge being none other than St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, it embraces the idea that no matter how hard we try, we seem unable to stop ourselves on being hellbent on destruction.”
The Madmen Of Apocalypso will be released on CD, limited-edition vinyl and digital formats on Fri 6 September 2024
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