First thing you notice when you play “Food For Coral” is that…it’s already over ! Effectively, this album of a length of almost 40 minutes lasts like if there were only 20 minutes of music, which is quite a good thing. An album that gives you the impression that it passes that fast is quite good in general.
“Super No One”, from Illinois, is made up of singer Tim Bolin, guitarist Ken Koskela, bassist Chip Znuff and drummer Jason Batchko and “Food For Coral” is their debut album. We unfortunately don’t have so much information about the members and band’s biography yet, but we know that Ron Lowe produced, recorded and mixed the album at Chicago Recording Company and would have recorded albums for “Smashing Pumpkins” and many other well known bands.
In my opinion, this album sounds a bit too “homogeneous” (or uniform)?!! In the way that the songs (especially the beat) sound very similar from each other and at some point, you almost forget to listen, you loose attention, because they resemble each other very much. This doesn’t mean that the songs are not good, but maybe just too much “the same” all through the CD.
Obviously this is not a negative comment but I also couldn’t help myself thinking in “U2” in many cases. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not but you definitely can feel and recognize some influences. I’m not criticizing, I’m a huge fan of U2, haha…but if you ask yourself how sounds “Super No One”, then you have the perfect example! Especially in the songs “Second’s Thought” (both musically and vocally), “Sarah’s Stone” (musically), “Jacquie” (again musically and vocally) and “Evil Eye” (mostly musically). Then to some extent “Super No One” could sound a bit like “Coldplay” too, for those who like…
While the track “Poet” reminds me A LOT of “Red Hot Chili Peppers” when it starts and “Social Fabric” makes me think straight of “R.E.M”. A good mix between rock and alternative, isn’t it?! ;-)
Intentional influences or not, the result of the album is good, interesting and successful. I quite like the lyrics, too. They are very simple and light, but couldn’t fit with the music and vocals better.
My favourite songs are “Anna” and “Just Color”, which are maybe more “individual” to the band. Two awesome tracks!
As a general idea, I would say it’s a good album, but maybe not completely my kind. I liked to listen to it, but once in a while would be enough for me and it’s not the kind of CD I would play endlessly. So if you feel in the specific mood of listening to music in the vein of U2 and Coldplay, good rock, I’d say “go for it”. The songs are very happy and moody. Yeah…it might be a great CD for your “summer collection”. Or the perfect album to play when you ride your car. ;-)
Reviewed by Vikie Martel on August 8th, 2006
