Invisible Invasion [Import]

The Coral | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 24, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Sony/Bmg
• ASIN: B000808YY6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #255,080 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

On their fourth outing, the Coral are anything but obvious or heavy-handed. On the contrary, delicacy and understatement define the British septet’s latest. The 1960s shake hands with the 1980s in their wistful pop, yet they never--or very rarely, at any rate--come across as a retro act. At their best, they sound like Madness circa "Tomorrow's (Just Another Day)" (must be that organ) or Echo & the Bunnymen circa "Lips Like Sugar" (James Skelly could be Ian McCulloch’s little brother). With its chugging, train-like rhythm and haunting chorus, "She Sings the Mourning" sounds like the theme to a lost Tom Courtenay film, while the enchanting "So Long Ago" evokes Sondre Lerche's gentle folk-pop. Then there are others, like the perfectly pleasant "Leaving Today" and "Come Home," where the Coral almost cross that fine line dividing tasteful from dull, but there are no real duds on The Invisible Invasion. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Work on the Coral's The Invisible Invasion began back at the start of 2004. It's produced by Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow(Portishead). The band hired a house in the Lake District for two weeks and rehearsed the 18 possible songs for the album, tweaking and developing them there, before they were ready to set them to acetate. The first single to be taken from the album is entitled 'In The Morning'. Sony. 2005

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars CD contains DRM software that opens your system to viruses, November 12, 2005

By 

Phillip Roncoroni "goodcowfilms.com" (Manhattan, New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

As many people may know by now, Sony was recently caught with egg on their face when a security specialist found out that a recently purchased CD (Van Zant: Get Right With The Man) from Sony music not only installed DRM software (digital rights management, to limit and outright prevent copying music to certain devices), but it did so in such a sneaky way that it hid itself entirely from Windows, and opened the system up to security issues such as viruses.

This CD has the same copyright protection, called XCP. When installed, Sony hijacks your computer and installs custom software which:

1) Hides itself entirely from Windows by installing as a rootkit
2) Hides itself in such a manner that any files begining with $sys$ are also hidden. For example, if you install the XCP copy protection software on your machine, and rename "document.doc" to "$sys$document.doc" it then becomes invivisble to you forever.
3) Installs its own custom CD-Rom drivers to hijack your system. It also sneakily names these drivers "Plug and Play Device Manager" to seem as if it's a part of Windows. Trying to delete these drivers manually will disable your CD-Rom drive entirely.
4) Offers no uninstall option until you manually contact Sony

As of my writing this review, Sony has "apologized" for this incident, and claims they will "re-evaluate" this copyright protection software on their CDs in the future.

In the meantime, a virus is currently running wild, which names itself begining with $sys$ in an attempt to hide from the user and virus scanners.

Several class action lawsuits are also pending against Sony right now.

In summary, as you can tell from above, Sony's actions here are absolutely horrible. This is your music. You purchased it, and they should not have any right to dictate how you can use it, let alone install software which compromises your system security.

This is one of the CDs with Sony's XCP copyright protection software on it, and as a result, you should not buy it to send a message to Sony that this will NOT be tolerated in the future.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Album. Horrible CD., September 1, 2005

By 

Tezkah (Lethbridge, Canada) - See all my reviews

Having just got into the Libertines and other British bands I asked for recommendations based on that. Someone casually mentioned The Coral and I fell in love with them after listening to their new CD, the Invisible Invasion, just once. Just a fantastic album that doesn't get old.

The downside? This isn't a CD. This is a Content Protected Coaster with what is called XPC protection. Do you want to copy this CD onto your harddrive? Sure! As long as you use protected WMA and install software on your computer. OH! You want to put it on an iPod? SORRY! Sony attempts to blame Apple for only allowing MP3, AAC (both protected and non), and Apple Lossless Codec files onto the most popular player in the planet. "We're working with them", they say, "to make Apple embrace our open standard". Their "open standard" however, is a crippled and lossy format (protected WMA) that is only supported by Microsoft and associated players.

There is a happy ending to this, however. I have found a program that lets me rip the songs from this CD to unprotected MP3 (Exact Audio Copy) so I can put it on my iPod. Sad when people who buy the CD are treated like criminals, and when its easier to just download, isn't it?

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Growing Pains- CORAL -Getting Better, July 2, 2005

By 

allismile0 "allismile0" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Invisible Invasion (Audio CD)

Invisible Invasion has the immediacy of the Coral's first album with the maturing song writing of Magic And Medicine.

The music is a hybrid of 60's/80's psychedelic rock and present day art rock. Each song has a sharpness and character to it that makes it fun to listen to more and more.

I don't know how this band hasn't taken off more in the US.

The Operator? That song is as crunchy as anything that the Queens of Stoneage have done. Just about all the songs are awesome- but that song grabs me the most.

I agree with another reviewer that Egyptian Sand isn't up to par with the rest of the album- mainly because it sounds exactly like a mix of songs Syd Barrett wrote on Pink Floyds first album.

Also I like how this album mixes a good amount of pop tunes with more aggressive/progressive songs. That was one thing that disappointed me about my initial listenings to Magic And Medicine; it felt pastoral and slightly poppy. Were as the debut album was nothing but emotional highs and fun wacky tunes. It would have been dissapointing in the long run if they would have made a part ii to their debut. They were what, 19 when they made that album? I like that they keep extending themselves.

Invisible Invasion shows a band that is refining their expression of sound.

ps
The e.p., Nightfreak & The Sons Of Becker, was a sign of the transition the Coral was making towards this album, but Medicine Magic already felt transitional- so it seemed mostly like a set of b-sides. Although Grey Harpoon is a personal favorite.