Coheed And Cambria
The Father Of Make Believe
Virgin Records
A Coheed And Cambria album is always an event and the invitation to the latest batch of anthemic rock glory has arrived in our inbox.Yesterday’s Lost opens on lilting autumnal melodies and sets the scene for another epic Coheed and Cambria voyage and surges into Goodbye Sunshine and I predict mass singalongs at this year’s 2000 Trees where this highly revered act are headlining this summer, such is their exalted status in rock’s premier league. Pinning down Coheed’s genre is always tricky, progressive punky rock will do for now, owing as much to Rush as it does My Chemical Romance. Huge choruses always are a staple feature as are the odd cosmic wig outs as excellently displayed on Searching For Tomorrow. Title track The Father Of Make Believe is where those progressive Rush stylings come into full and it’s here where long term fans will be turning cartwheels as it’s here where Coheed And Cambria fully thrive and their multi coloured palette flows over. There’s so many layers in the band’s compositions that you’ll be picking this album apart for hundreds of listens, you can feel the craft flowing through it. It’s clever but not in an exclusionary way, in fact quite the opposite, it makes progressive music accessible to all. Don’t forget Coheed can let rip too, like on the screaming Blind Side Sonny a totally breakneck banger of a track tailor made for high speed car chases, it segues into the equally unhinged Play The Poet with it’s frantic DnB influence. There doesn’t seem to be a stone left unturned here sonically but it’s all remarkably cohesive and beautifully constructed. Whilst Coheed are very progressive their track lengths still hover around four minutes meaning there’s no dragging and everything keeps you on your toes,this is shown in the back end burst of 3-4 minute perfect rock songs ending on the arena friendly Someone Who Can leading up to the final trilogy (part 3 is in two parts confusingly) named The Continuum. Because it is Coheed And Cambria after all, we can’t have anything too conventional, can we? And as soon as Part 1: Welcome To Forever, Mr Nobody lands the tone changes slightly as if to say, this is the serious bit, concentrate! A few riffs here wouldn’t be out of place on a Periphery epic. Part 2: The Flood goes deeper still and twists and turns like a Marvel multiverse plot. Part 3: Tethered is full of drama and a swung out groove building to spaced out album finale So It Goes and it’s jolly pop hooks and brass sections. That concludes in a full on cinematic crescendo! It’s an utterly unexpected rainbow of a song that fits in perfectly on an album of constant surprises that somehow all make perfect sense!
Review by George Miller