wicker man idea, which the band liked. Originally scheduled for release on 22 July 2002, The Coral was eventually released a week later on 29 July 2002, through Deltasonic. The vinyl version included "Simian Technology" as a bonus track, while the Japanese edition featured "Answer Me" and "Simian Technology". The album's release was promoted with an appearance at that year's V Festival. In October 2002, the band toured across the UK; coinciding with this, "Dreaming of You" was released as a single on 7 October 2002. Two versions were released on CD in the UK: the first with "Answer Me", "Follow the Sun", and the music video for "Dreaming of You", while the second included "Sweet Sue", "Another Turn in the Lock", and an acoustic video of "Dreaming of You". The Coral was released in that territory on 4 March 2003, through Columbia Records. The Coral was re-pressed on vinyl in 2011 and 2016, both times through the label Music on Vinyl. "Dreaming of You" and "Goodbye" were included on the band's greatest hits Singles Collection (2008) compilation. The two-CD version included demo versions of "Shadows Fall", "Calendars and Clocks" and "Dreaming of You". In 2022, the band are set to perform the album in its entirety through a UK tour, alongside a reissue that includes B-sides and two new songs ("She's the Girl for Me" and "Tumble Graves"). Reception The Coral was met with universal acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on 18 reviews. The Guardian critic Alexis Petridis found the album to be a "mass of remarkable contradictions", with the band "explor[ing] 1960s rock's extremities, areas too strange for Britpop's crowd-pleasing conformity." He said it was filled with "such inexplicable pleasures [...] it sounds like a fantastic debut album by a boundless and frighteningly talented band.". Entertainment Weekly writer Brian M. Raftery found the band to "defy easy categorization", while remaining constantly "engaging, making for a record that’s as hard to ignore as it is to pin down." Spin Christian Hoard highlighted the band's use of "melody and harmony. Rich in minor-key melancholia, twangy reverb, and retro keyboards." Chris Long for BBC Manchester Music saw it as an "interesting debut. [... D]espite it's derivations and blatant robbing," the album was "original, challenging and above all, fun".