Coheed And Cambria The Father of Make Believe

“It won’t get any easier as I start to get old,” Coheed and Cambria godhead Claudio Sanchez sings on “Yesterday’s Lost”, the nearly hymnal opening track to The Father of Make Believe. Indeed, the long-running emo-prog band’s 10th studio album has a personal and reflective quality that comes with watching the world change around you as the years go by. The fists-in-the-air anthem “Meri of Mercy” is a tribute to his late grandparents, while the tender acoustic ballad “Corner My Confidence” is a highly romantic zoom-in that Sanchez composed during the band’s second S.S. Neverender cruise in 2023. But don’t mistake these sentimental moments as a sign that Coheed and Cambria’s ambition has slowed, as The Father of Make Believe is as forceful of a rock record as anything else in their discography. As evidenced on the pedal-to-the-metal “Goodbye, Sunshine” and the pounding “Someone Who Can”, they’re making rock music for the cosmos here, taking their listeners into uncharted territory as always, while delivering the melodic gifts that they’ve been blessed with since the very beginning.