I’m a huge Gravity’s Union advocate, so it’s awesome to see it and Willing Well II on there. No issues with Welcome Home, IKS, and Delirium Trigger also being there.
I'm ready to commit one to the records Afterman GA Vol. 1 Vaxis II GA Vol. 2 Vaxis I IKSOSE3 TCBTS SSTB YOTBR (Before anyone asks: I didn't get into Coheed until GA Vol 1 and always had trouble connecting to the older albums, Blood Red Summer and House Atlantic are bops though)
Honestly I respect it. Mine would look pretty similar but GA:1 is my favorite and IKS is easily second, but the rest would fall in line similarly to yours.
I loved their Under the Milky Way cover back in the day, happy to have a better quality version of it than the old YouTube rip I used to have
I haven't really listened to this band since IKSSE3 because GA1 never did anything for me... as someone who loved SSTB and IKSSE3... I guess I will do a full disco run to see if anything grabs me at this point since it's been what.... 20 years since I listened to this band.
I say this as someone who claims them as their favorite band: it really depends on what you didn’t like about GA:1. If it was too produced, I can’t imagine you’ll find anything with the youthful, raw urgency of those first two. If it was the creepy misogynistic lyrics, yeah that gets a lot better, though more ambiguous and vague. If GA:1 was too proggy and indulgent, they definitely haven’t leaned that heavy into that side of them since.
Honestly if what you missed in their sound was the pop hooks and catchy song structure, you should skip ahead to when Josh Eppard rejoined. Dude’s always been the secret weapon to make Claudio’s prog digestible.
Really think if someone was to listen to Coheed for the very first time without any prior knowledge, NWFT would be my recommendation as a starting point. Just bangers and a little bit of everything
To each their own, but No World for Tomorrow might be the most a band has ever broken my heart with a new release. I almost gave up on them entirely after that and Year of the Black Rainbow.
I was a 16-year-old kid when NWFT came out, and after having my mind blown by GA:1, I had way too high of expectations for NWFT. I basically thought The End Complete was going to be like The Willing Well but kicked up a notch, then when it wasn't that I had a hard time appreciating it for what it was. I love NWFT now though.
It's grown on me over the years to where I can say I like the album now. But man, it just jettisoned so much of what made them great. All the stuff in NWFT was part of the DNA before that, but it was balanced out with hooks and structure and some simpler pop/emo parts, and that combination is what made them basically my favorite band for a stretch. I'd never heard anyone else do it quite that way.
Echoing a similar sentiment. It has grown on me a lot now, but at the time of release I was really disappointed with NWFT.
I was also naive about Josh and Mic leaving, and thinking, "they aren't primary songwriters, it shouldn't matter all that much". It's honestly a miracle it sounded as good as it did, thanks to Mic coming back and Taylor Hawkins (RIP).
Josh is easily the most important member right next to Claudio. Dude rules and brings so much to the band. Genuinely is my favorite drummer.
I've said it before, but if you gave me a pass to hangout with a member of the band for a day, my initial thought is Claudio but I wonder if it'd get weird, but I know with Josh I'd have a blast all day, haha.
https://www.altpress.com/coheed-and...tm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio Really good interview. Mentions what we’re talking about too in that Josh is the first one Claudio sends songs too, and when he wrote Gravity’s Union he knew he needed Josh back and it was the catalyst for getting him back.