Here to Mars by Coheed and Cambria in 500 words (Including the title).

“This is the best straight rock song of the last decade,” Said Andy Leddington in a podcast we had done earlier this year. At the time I responded with a pained ‘Errrr… are you sure?’ I mean it’s a cracking song, Coheed and Cambria do big, epic songs very well, it’s their bread and butter at this point. Their new album, The Colour Before The Sun is one that I recommend the first half of very highly*. It was nice to hear them pull the scale of their music down a few notches; their songs on this album lacked that epic scope and just went for a more straight rock sound, which I found to be very pleasing to my ears.

The exception to the rule was Here to Mars, where Coheed bring the epic scale back to do something that’s still quite simple, a love song. No huge war or planet shaping events to be sung about here, just the lead singer telling a girl that he loves her very much and this song does it for me.

The song starts off with a distorted cello riff with carefully placed drum and bass stings, giving the song a very active pulse which a lack of could of easily made this song unbearable.  Then it ramps up to then chorus masterfully, half way through to the verse they start chugging the riff on guitar and then cutting the backing entirely just to hit you in the face with that chorus.  The chorus on this song is near perfect… if not for the titular lyric. Claudio Sanchez as a vocalist divides people**.  On the one hand it is very impressive he can sing that high, but on the other hand, the wrong lyric can really make him sound very childish. This song doesn’t commit the cardinal sin of having him swear, something which can ruin a Coheed song for me just because it’s that cringe inducing to hear, but the line ‘You’re my everything from here to mars,’ sounds like a child wrote it for his first band. Which is a shame, because the other lyrics are very heartfelt and Claudio delivers them in a way that sells you on the emotion behind them.

I wouldn’t say this is the best rock song of the last decade (See True Trans Soul Rebel by Against me! and ‘45’ by the Gaslight Anthem for my contenders for that title) but I do think this could very well become a modern classic. Masterfully put together, fantastically produced and quite simply epic. But honestly, despite the excellent composure and genuine sweetness, I can’t say it’s perfect, although I do absolutely love this song. So, to sum it all up in a single word: ‘Quasi-perfect.’

*As a matter of fact, here’s the very podcast where I talk about the album with a couple of friends: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di6WgnPXb70

**Divides me, Andy and Richard at least.