I picked up the new Coheed and Cambria album today, and it is fantastic. I first discovered them when Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 1: From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness (yes, that’s the real title) came out, and I loved it. Awesome hard prog rock nerdery. I eventually looked into their first two albums; The Second Stage Turbine Blade was miserable — decent lyrics, but boring songwriting and just plain sloppy musicianship. In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 was a vast improvement in performance, but the songwriting was still nothing spectacular. Good Apollo showed a real improvement in the band, and now No World For Tomorrow is even better.

Nick Raskulinecz is on hand as producer this time around. You will recall him as the producer of the latest Rush album as well; this guy is really impressing me. Although Coheed and Cambria have toned down the rhythmic complexity here, they’re really rocking out more than before.

There are hints of record label stupidity on this album, though. First of all, the album is technically Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 2, but that prefix isn’t listed anywhere on the album cover. I’m curious as to why. Cutting it down to No World For Tomorrow is certainly less of a mouthful, but it is a real deviation from the naming convention of the previous albums. It’s possible this was the band’s decision, but I doubt it.

Another deviation is the fact that the album doesn’t begin with the string section intro that introduced the previous albums. Why not? I know the band was looking to remove some of the prog rock elements, so maybe this was, again, their decision… but my instincts tell me the record label thought they weren’t mainstream enough.

On top of that, there’s a liner note that although Chris Pennie is the official drummer in the band, all drums were performed by Taylor Hawkins, of the Foo Fighters. Dig deeper and you find that their original drummer, Josh Eppard, left some time last year, and was replaced by Pennie, but Pennie was not allowed to record on the album due to “contractual obligations.” I can only imagine the record label bullshit that must have caused this.

Speaking of which, all of the liner notes are online, and the CD comes in a little cardboard sleeve. I’m not unhappy with this, but it’s odd, and it makes the disc look like a lesser product compared to other discs on the store shelf. Is somebody cutting costs here? There’s a deluxe version with an extra DVD and booklet, but I didn’t see the point.

And to top it off, the leading single is the worst song on the album. Who made that decision? It’s not a bad song, per se, but every other track on the album is better than “The Running Free.” “Gravemakers & Gunslingers” would have been a much better choice; it’s just as energetic (if not moreso) and has some truly bitchin’ guitar riffs. People have already been making custom Guitar Hero charts for it.

The result of all these mistakes? Apparently the album isn’t selling well. Which is a shame, because as I said, it’s as good as their last album, if not better.

P.S. - I checked online a little while ago to see if they were coming to Texas any time soon, and it turns out they were playing here in Austin tonight. I couldn’t figure out what time, though, so I rushed down to the venue, and sure enough, they were finishing their last song right when I got there. Oh, well.