Half Measures

The Prize Fighter Inferno is much more than a side project for Coheed & Cambria’s frontman, Claudio Sanchez. It’s a conceptual band splintered from C&C’s ongoing lyrical saga of The Amory Wars—a story so complex it needed another musical project to further its deeply interwoven plotlines. This effervescent 2012 EP features acoustic-laced laptronica-pop. It starts with “Elm Street Loverboy,” with a protagonist who likens his secret love for Nancy with that of the characters from Nightmare on Elm Street. “Simple Fix” follows, with plunderphonic samples and Sanchez singing more soulfully; the lyrics compare the burning urgency of needing somebody to chemical addiction. Pistol Pete Matty works in some glockenspiel and background ambience, over which Sanchez sings like a young Michael Jackson. The folky title track boasts a beautifully intense ballad stripped down to acoustic fingerpicking and layered vocals that resemble Eldra Patrick; it's about living inside a self-built prison built from choosing not to trust those who believed in you the most.