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The Coral<\/a> have spoken to NME<\/em> about quietly releasing their surprise new album \u2018388\u2019 in record stores nearly a fortnight ago, ahead of officially sharing the project today (Thursday May 21). Read on for more on how the \u201craw\u201d collection came about, and listen to lead single \u2018Let The Music Play\u2019.<\/p>\n On May 8, copies of the LP appeared in independent vinyl shops across the UK completely unannounced. While it was clearly by The Coral, the band hadn\u2019t commented on social media or anywhere else about the record, or confirmed they were behind the 11 new songs.<\/p>\n Now, the five-piece have broken their silence and explained to NME<\/em> why they wanted to surprise fans with a new full-length effort \u2013 three years on from releasing both \u2018Sea Of Mirrors\u2019<\/a> and \u2018Holy Joe\u2019s Coral Island Medicine Show\u2019 on the same day in 2023. It comes as \u2018388\u2019 arrives to the wider world via online streaming platforms and in high street music stockists nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cReleasing an album this way keeps us interested and keeps the fans interested too,\u201d said frontman James Skelly of the initial low-key drop. \u201cThe idea was to release it how records used to be released: people can just have it for a couple of weeks, and it isn\u2019t explained to anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Keyboardist Nick Power added: \u201cHalf the idea was that people would see it and think that, because we hadn\u2019t announced anything, that \u2018388\u2019 might be a bootleg. We wanted people to wonder: \u2018What is<\/em> this?\u2019 Not saying anything about it since it\u2019s been out has been the hardest aspect.\u201d<\/p>\n