You have to hand it to The Coronas: they’ve stayed the course. The naysayers who dismissed Danny O’Reilly as a nepo baby, or wrote off the Dublin band as a flash in the pan after hearing the J1 anthem San Diego Song probably wouldn’t have expected them to still be selling out venues and scoring number-one albums more than 20 years later. Their eighth record sees the trio in familiar territory, presumably operating under the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rule.
Over the years O’Reilly has thrown himself into both heartache and romantic ecstasy with aplomb, and much of Thoughts and Observations lands squarely in both territories. Several songs seem tinged with regret about a lost love; Speak Up sees him asking, “Do you still think about us?” and If You’re Going, a postfight apology in song form (“I would never control you, and if I made a scene, I’m sorry”) sure beats a bunch of wilting flowers from the local garage.
Confirmation, meanwhile, recalls a meeting with a former lover, its sentiment heartfelt but lyrics clunky (“I spotted a Starbucks receipt for two iced coffees/ I’m happy for you. I hope you’re happy for me, too”). On other songs, he is clearly smitten: Ghosting and Crowded Room ooze with a sense of romantic longing, while the schmoozy 1970s piano ballad Hearts for Eyes (“There’s nothing else for me to do/ I just found out that I’m obsessed with you”) is perhaps the most shameless love song he’s written yet.
Still, The Coronas refuse to shy away from their arena-filling ambitions. Dotted amid the honeyed piano ballads are anthems written for big singalongs by the light of 10,000 mobile-phone torches. From the Coldplay-lite of If You’re Going to the standout track At Least She’s Laughing – its soaring refrain leading to a heady brew of brass, bustling drums and cacophonic climax – the trio have resisted the urge to reinvent the wheel. Now they’re simply attending to their fans’ desires. In this case that means a pretty solid collection of reassuringly sentimental pop-rock songs.
