The Coral Holy Joe Vinyl LP 2023

1. Holy Joe (Sounds From The Other Side)
2. The Sinner
3. Hotel
4. Holy Joe (Hitchhiker At The Highway’s Edge)
5. Affiliation
6. Leave This Town
7. The Road Is Calling
8. Holy Joe (Rita Is Having A Bad One)
9. Never Be In Love Like That Again
10. Driter’s Prayer
11. Holy Joe (Bobby And Faith)
12. Long Drive To The City
13. Down By The Riverside
14. Holy Joe (The Graveyard Shift)
15. Baby Face Nelson
16. Holy Joe (A Wise Man Once Said)
17. The Coral Island Killer
18. Holy Joe (Let The Credits Roll

It features a ramshackle cast: along with the usual suspects, Coral Islandcompère (and Skelly Granddad) The Great Moriarty makes a return, alongside actor and friend-of-the-band John Simm, who recites wanderlust eulogy Drifter's Prayer. Glaswegian singer Rianne Downey is involved in a murderous duet. An unnamed pedal-steel player from the back of beyond plays a funeral score over Hotel.

Don't get me wrong, this isn't an act of self-sabotage or half-arsed in any way; more a deliberate attempt to make an art form out of the forgotten follow-up. Who else but The Coral are going to fill this important cultural sinkhole?

Framed inside a midnight radio show beaming out from a Michelin blimp that hovers somewhere past the piers of Coral Island, Holy Joe... is a love letter to the tradition of the death disc and murder ballad, from Stack-o-Lee to Skeleton Key, and everything in between.

Stay up late. Tune in. If you do, who knows? You might end up loving it more than the original.