My inline-block elements are not lining up properly

All of the elements within .track-container should line up nice and in line, each side by side, constrained by the 200px height they've been given with no weird margins or padding. Instead, you have the strangeness that occurs in the aforementioned fiddle.

What is causing .album-artwork and .track-info to get pushed halfway down the page, and how can I fix it? Also, I acknowledge that a table may be a better way of approaching this whole setup, but I want to figure out the problem from the code above so I can learn from this mistake.

.track-container {
    padding:0;
    width: 600px;
    height: 200px;
    border: 1px solid black;
    list-style-type: none;
    margin-bottom: 10px;
}

.position-data {
    overflow: none;
    display: inline-block;
    width: 12.5%;
    height: 200px;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

.current-position, .position-movement {
    height: 100px;
    width: 100%;
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

.album-artwork {
    display: inline-block;
    height: 200px;
    width: 20%;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

.track-info {
    display: inline-block;
    padding-left: 10px;
    height: 200px;
    border: 1px solid black;
}

<div class="track-container">
    <div class="position-data">
        <div class="current-position">1</div>
        <div class="position-movement">2</div>
    </div>
    <div class="album-artwork">fdasfdsa</div>
    <div class="track-info">fdafdsa</div>
</div>

Here's a JSFiddle.

>10.8 Line height calculations: the 'line-height' and 'vertical-align' properties > >The baseline of an 'inline-block' is the baseline of its last line box in the normal flow, unless it has either no in-flow line boxes or if its 'overflow' property has a computed value other than 'visible', in which case the baseline is the bottom margin edge.

This is a common issue involving inline-block elements. In this case, the default value of the vertical-align property is baseline. If you change the value to top, it will behave as expected.

Updated Example

.position-data {
    vertical-align: top;
}

The elements inside .track-container are inline-level boxes in the same line box.

Therefore, their vertical alignment is specified by the vertical-align property:

> This property affects the vertical positioning inside a line box of > the boxes generated by an inline-level element.

By default, its value is baseline:

> Align the baseline of the box with the baseline of the parent box. If > the box does not have a baseline, align the bottom margin edge with > the parent's baseline.

In this case, they all have baselines, which are calculated according to

> The baseline of an 'inline-block' is the baseline of its last line box > in the normal flow, unless it has either no in-flow line boxes or if > its 'overflow' property has a computed value other than 'visible', in > which case the baseline is the bottom margin edge.

The following image clarifies what's happening (the red line is the baseline):

Therefore, you can

• Change the vertical alignment of the elements, e.g. to top, middle or bottom

   .track-container > * {
     vertical-align: middle;
   }
  

.track-container {
  padding: 0;
  width: 600px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  list-style-type: none;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.position-data {
  overflow: none;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 12.5%;
  height: 200px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.current-position,
.position-movement {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.album-artwork {
  display: inline-block;
  height: 200px;
  width: 20%;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-info {
  display: inline-block;
  padding-left: 10px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-container > * {
  vertical-align: middle;
}

<div class="track-container">
  <div class="position-data">
    <div class="current-position">1</div>
    <div class="position-movement">2</div>
  </div>
  <div class="album-artwork">fdasfdsa</div>
  <div class="track-info">fdafdsa</div>
</div>

• Set the overflow of the elements to something different than visible, e.g. hidden or auto, so that their baseline will be their bottom margin edge.

   .track-container > * {
     overflow: hidden;
   }
  

.track-container {
  padding: 0;
  width: 600px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  list-style-type: none;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.position-data {
  overflow: none;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 12.5%;
  height: 200px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.current-position,
.position-movement {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.album-artwork {
  display: inline-block;
  height: 200px;
  width: 20%;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-info {
  display: inline-block;
  padding-left: 10px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-container > * {
  overflow: hidden;
}

<div class="track-container">
  <div class="position-data">
    <div class="current-position">1</div>
    <div class="position-movement">2</div>
  </div>
  <div class="album-artwork">fdasfdsa</div>
  <div class="track-info">fdafdsa</div>
</div>

• Make sure the elements have no in-flow line box, so that their baseline will be their bottom margin edge. That is, the contents should be out of flow:

  > An element is called out of flow if it is floated, absolutely > positioned, or is the root element. An element is called in-flow if it > is not out-of-flow.

  So for example, you can place the contents of the elements in a wrapper, and style it with float: left:

   .track-container > * > .wrapper {
     float: left;
   }
  

.track-container {
  padding: 0;
  width: 600px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
  list-style-type: none;
  margin-bottom: 10px;
}
.position-data {
  overflow: none;
  display: inline-block;
  width: 12.5%;
  height: 200px;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.current-position,
.position-movement {
  height: 100px;
  width: 100%;
  margin: 0;
  padding: 0;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.album-artwork {
  display: inline-block;
  height: 200px;
  width: 20%;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-info {
  display: inline-block;
  padding-left: 10px;
  height: 200px;
  border: 1px solid black;
}
.track-container > * > .wrapper {
  float: left;
}

<div class="track-container">
  <div class="position-data">
    <div class="current-position wrapper">1</div>
    <div class="position-movement wrapper">2</div>
  </div>
  <div class="album-artwork">
    <span class="wrapper">fdasfdsa</span>
  </div>
  <div class="track-info">
    <span class="wrapper">fdafdsa</span>
  </div>
</div>

<!-- end snippet -->

You need to add vertical-align:top to those two elements:

.album-artwork, .track-info {
    vertical-align:top;
}

jsFiddle example

The default vertical alignment is baseline, but you are looking for top instead.

Or you could set float:left; to 3 elements.

http://jsfiddle.net/fC2nt/

Make sure the line-height ratio on all the elements you're trying to align is the same also. If you're using a mix of DIV, P, H1-5, DT, DD, INPUT, BUTTON tags this will also cause irregularities in vertical alignment depending on what you've already defined elsewhere.