Coheed and Cambria – The Father of Make Believe

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It sure feels like Coheed and Cambria have been around much longer than 23-plus years since their debut album was released. Is it the mix of classic rock and prog rock elements that give them that nostalgic feel? Possibly. Is it the rich concepts of traveling through epic space storylines? Could be that as well. All things considered, Coheed and Cambria feel right at home with their tenth studio album, The Father of Make Believe. The record blends a lot of what Coheed have been best at over their storied career thus far, and adds in some new creative elements to their sound to prevent the album from feeling like a retread of already covered ground. Instead, The Father of Make Believe is a gripping exploration of mortality, legacy, and human connections that make us want to keep navigating through this crazy life. Look no further than the opening track of “Yesterday’s Lost” where vocalist/guitarist Claudio Sanchez ponders, “If this life ends early / Would I have spent our time right?” before later confessing, “It won’t get any easier / As I start to get old / Please share with me something / Before I lose control,” and you start to get the feeling like this band is in a reflective state of where they have been so far, and yet they embrace whatever comes next. And yes, while these lyrics are wrapped up in the space rock narrative of The Armory Wars/Vaxis storyline, there is still a beating heart behind each of these words that can be applied to the realities we all experience today. That’s the magic of Coheed and Cambria. They have been able to relate to not only their fellow “comic book nerds” but also those who appreciate great rock music that leaves us feeling fulfilled.

After the introductory track sets the stage for all that takes place on The Father of Make Believe, Coheed get into a comfortable groove found on “Goodbye, Sunshine” that features an all-time melodic chorus of, “Goodbye, Sunshine / I’ll be the first in line here at your wake, celebrating the good times / I won’t stay mad, we played our parts / And those were the breaks, so maybe some things were hard / It was so worth a good goddamn, but all things end / I can’t have you back, but some things are better off dead.” The song accelerates to the finish line with some incredible guitar parts by Sanchez and Travis Stever, as their dynamic between their sections perfectly complement each other. “Searching For Tomorrow” begins with a near robotic-sounding guitar riff that is present throughout most of the track, while the lyrical material of the chorus shares, “Misunderstood /Well, you’re headed straight into the flames / Left into it, you’re out of your mind / It’s so good to let go, so good to let go / Let them know it’s by design.” What the band does well on songs like this is to lean in closer to their strengths of their collective musicianship, while advancing the story that is present throughout all of their records.

The title track is a mid-tempo rocker that features some classic prog rock elements to it and the second verse I found especially powerful as Claudio sings, “Pride and grace are feeling outnumbered / In moments where nothing is as it seems or as it fits / Pushed out of place, where our memories / Now enemies, fill voids to take up space.” It’s hard to not relate these words to the political climate these days, even if the intended purpose is to navigate the listener through the story. “Meri of Mercy” brings the pacing down quite a bit as a gently played piano sets the stage for Claudio’s picturesque lyrics, all before the band gears up for the next stages if the song by letting the track follow a logical path to the finish.

Other songs, like the lead single of “Blind Side Sonny”, are more abrasive in their approach as Claudio’s shouted vocals in the verse as he ends the first section with “Your ass is no longer welcome here!” The spiraling rock and roll riffing from Stever/Sanchez makes for a memorable middle section of the LP and shows that the band is still more than willing to put an uptempo rocker in their albums to keep things at their most interesting. The song bleeds into “Play the Poet” that highlights the change in stylistic choices made at this point in the album, and the tone of the record shifts into an even more experimental, almost industrial, type of style.

”One Last Miracle” slow-builds to the crowd-pleasing chorus of, “One last miracle, a fortune sold on television / Where our truth’s coming from, so damaged beyond recognition / Ad placement will keep things clever, preoccupied with the now or never / One last miracle, stay tuned for the revolution,” that’s material covers the news cycles that dominate our attention and headspace, while the final lyric of “stay tuned for the revolution” hints at better days lying ahead. It’s a thought that we should all have in the back of our minds that bad times don’t last forever, and we can still hold out hope that things can and will improve.

The ballad of “Corner My Confidence” is an acoustic guitar-driven song that comes at the right time in the album sequencing, and showcases the power that Claudio’s voice has in the singer-songwriter stylized tracks that can convey the same raw emotion as the uptempo rockers in the set. My personal favorite, “Someone Who Can”, has a very 80’s rock feel to it, and it is a song that makes you feel like you’re floating on air and capable of accomplishing anything you set your heart and mind to. The ultra-melodic standout is a song that will stand the test of time due to its great structure, pacing, and memorable moments that demand to be played with the windows down on a long drive to a desirable destination.

The closing moments of the record are prefaced with “The Continuum” parts I-IV that mark a change in the overall storyline. “Welcome to Forever, Mr. Nobody” adds in the second verse of, “A fear growing since they found us / Voiced my distress, difficult to process / Inside my fantasy of conflicts / I’m scared to question / If the real me still exists,” as Claudio makes a memorable lyrical statement pondering his place in this world. “The Flood” is a great example of crisp storytelling and Coheed and Cambria at their strongest and most confident. The section of “In the days, through the light, the shade saves me from /
What you cannot be, I couldn’t give to you / With the chance to leave comes the chance I take / To lose everything power illuminates,” is basically another way of saying “Everything is darkest just before the dawn,” albeit with a bit more context. “Tethered Together” features a memorable chorus of “We’ll all sing together From the first verse to the last word / Our voices will unify in harmony / Sing together, tethered forever” that while making logical sense in the fictional world, it also fits in our own reality by making the “strength in numbers” concept all more relatable. Album closer of “So It Goes” feels like a combination of Panic! at the Disco meets Coheed and Cambria with a song similar to the classic Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky.” It’s a cool, playful moment and a curious artistic choice to close out a record that is filled with so many twists and turns to both the story narrative as well as the relatable concepts that can be applied to our own lives.

The Father of Make Believe continues the legendary run of great albums that Coheed and Cambria have been making in the latter stages of their career, and showcases the band’s staying power in the rock scene. The faults in this album are really, really hard to find, and when they do pop up, they are quickly corrected by this band who has such a clear vision for their music. It’s a great time to be a Coheed fan, and the band delivers the goods once again.

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