Coheed and Cambria

Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV

Sony

Grade: B+

 

Fans of Coheed and Cambria’s previous two albums, “Second Stage Turbine Blade” and “In Keeping Secrets...,” will be happy to know, even after a jump to a major label, the band still has their trademark sound.

“Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV” showcases Coheed’s more focused sound. It is a good solid rock album, rather than an album that just dips into more pop tracks such as “Blood Red Summer,” from their last album. The band still manages to create complicated, smart, sing-along songs, but not as ridiculously “TRL” as previous efforts.

Once listeners get past the singles, “Welcome Home” and “The Suffering,” which are fine songs, they will experience a heavy mixture of pop and metal as only Coheed can arrange. Grave, repetitive hooks, such as “I hope you die right now\Will you drink my chemicals?,” from “Once Upon Your Dead Body” will stay in listeners’ brains until they find a new track to dwell upon.

“Crossing the Frame” is another song that is hard to stop singing. Besides the catchy aspect, there are many finely toned features to this album. The backup vocals are complex, but very creative and hook the audience in more to generate a sound that is more stimulating.

The first eleven songs weave through an explosion of madness, creativity and relationships, all arriving at the core of Coheed’s unique sound. The last four tracks delve into the heart of a word that has become synonymous with Coheed and Cambria: epic. They are all over seven minutes long, and take the listener up and down a rollercoaster of thoughts and sounds.

“Apollo II: The Telling Truth” is as close to a title track as there is on this album. It is, by far, the most complete track on this record. The lyrics are intense, but just as catchy as most of the album, “If my shame spills our worth across this floor\Then tonight, goodnight, I’m burning Star IV.”

Coheed and Cambria doesn’t allow haunting hooks like that to escape the audience’s mind, whether the listener wants words like that echoing in their head or not.

— By JJ Marshall, Staff Writer