Coheed and Cambria - No World for Tomorrow

Or if you prefer, Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow. Barring a possible prequel bearing the number one, Coheed and Cambria's fourth album wraps up the story they've been creating since the The Second Stage Turbine Blade, although it's not really clear to most people what that story is. Instead of saying anything understandable, the lyrics tend to just string together thoughts and oddly structured sentences in a way that hints at meaning but is generally pretty inscrutable. But we listen to music to enjoy the songs, not analyze the message, and No World for Tomorrow is still pretty good in that regard. Coheed's another one of those bands that just never quite reach what you think they might be capable of. There's a lot of nice touches and interesting musical moments, but a lot of the music is repetitive, not especially catchy pop punk. The better songs are all departures from that radio friendly style, with more of a progressive/operatic tone. The band is still full of great musicians, and there's some nice instrumentation here. They don't bring back the lullaby from the first three albums, but they still recall a few different themes and lines, adding a sense of coming full circle with the story and wrapping it up nicely.

"The Reaping" is an atmospheric, acoustic song that leads into the title track, a good song with a variety of catchy sections. "The Running Free" is the current single, and starts off very strong. It's a bit less entertaining after the vocals start, but it's decent. "Mother Superior" is a softer ballad in line with something like "The Light & the Glass", another standout among the more generic stuff around it. The End Complete is the coalition of the last five tracks much like The Willing Well from the last album, and is fairly epic in scope, representing the climax of the tale. "The Fall of House Atlantic" is an instrumental, and a fairly enjoyable one at that, in a slightly cheesy way. "Radio Bye Bye" is a conventional pop punk song that snuck in there somehow, and pretty forgettable. "The End Complete" is nearly eight minutes of pomp, with some good music and dramatic flair. "The Road and the Damned" is fairly solid, and transitions into the falling action of "On the Brink", which is also largely instrumental after a few minutes, with a clash of different styles ending in a slightly altered reprise of the solo from "The Final Cut", the last track of Volume One. It's not as grand as it could have been, but No World for Tomorrow is still a pretty decent album.