haha you pretty much nailed it, man - exactly what I was trying to convey interesting how development and influences work... there are no rules and this is an example: starts as original and unique band, decides to transform into an 80's worship band
The impression I got from that is that they always were a lot more influenced by 80's metal than an album like SSTB would've immediately implied. They seem to have outlier albums, whereas IKS, GA, NWFT and the two Afterman albums don't sound all that dissimilar given the span between them.
They choose the poppier, shorter songs as singles because they tend to have better hooks and more mass appeal. A lot of their bigger songs like the Crowing, IKS, Flame of Error etc don't necessarily click with most people right away and can take a few listens to really get into. Radio stations DO NOT like singles that are over 4 minutes. There are obvious exceptions (Tool, Metallica) but those are few and far between. When Domino was released, even the shortened version, it got no play on the radio and I even heard DJs ON AIR complain about the song's length before putting it on during it's debut.
radical opinion: the afterman records constitute some of their best work, and the color before the sun sucks
It's not. It's not even one of Coheed's better ballads. The guitar line just meanders and never really resolves itself, and while Coheed usually uses the orchestra really well, the string section in The Afterman adds nothing. I'm not in total disagreement with this
Descension is almost all killer, Ascension is pretty much all filler. Color Before the Sun is half cool, half drool.
Ascension/Descension is almost all killer. There's only maybe 1 or 2 songs on there that I don't love. TCBTS is half and half. Some really high points, but some real lows.
it's subtle (for Coheed's standards) and taps into a very melancholic state, which is a feeling they used to convey in a very unique way originally, and that somehow got lost in the transition into new Coheed I agree it's not the best orchestra arrangement ever, but it adds a little bit of color which is ok
^ Seriously. If they're going to make one-dimensional songs that lack the ambition and scope of the early records, I'd easily prefer melodic and atmospheric numbers like The Afterman or Colors/Ghost/Peace to the Mountain over cringy Whitesnake impressions like Mothers of Men.
I don't 100% disagree, but I feel like Evagria is one of the best things they've ever done. Something about that tropical beat just comes out of left field and really works. By the time he sings "From the other side she'll save me" I'm hooked every time. Personally, give me Wake Up or The Light & The Glass (I'd even take Far) over any of The Afterman/Colors/Ghost - Coheed's slower stuff just hasn't been grabbing me for awhile now.
Mother Superior has always been one of my favorites since the first time I heard it, I know it gets heavier toward the end so not sure if that counts as a straight up slower song but I love it.
Yeah, no doubt, even the softer songs were better on IKS/GA than recent records. "The Light & The Glass" is exhibit A of the type of melancholic-yet-epic atmosphere that really got lost starting with NWFT and the 80s craze. Still, I tend to find a lot more redeeming in their newer acoustic and slow songs than the ultra-straightforward cock rock like "Mothers of Men" or "The Hard Sell."
The more I analyze stuff this way the more I realize I might not even love this band anymore lol Still for me, their "greatest hits" album would be like 25-30 tracks long
I think YOTBR is great and wish they played more than HWAJ off of it, but I understand why they don't. NWFT is their weakest album to me. That thing takes a nose dive right around Mother Superior (hate the album version, LOVE the original acoustic) then comes back up for air with End Complete only to fall back down again. The Hound still has one of my favorite outros from them. Afterman was a refreshing return to form (maybe 1 or 2 tracks I don't care about) with the best album ending they've done yet from a narrative standpoint. Color Before the Sun would have been an amazing Claudio solo, but ended up being a pretty good Coheed album. I understand the love of the longer, more diverse tracks like Light and the Glass but from what I've heard those songs are far more difficult to write so I'm fine with only getting a few of them like Gravity's Union every once in a while than ones that are "bleh" like the Afterman b-sides.
The Light & the Glass is beautiful, it made the Good Apollo let down even worse, as it starts so beautifully