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Where to begin with Brand New. Back in high school I picked up a cd called Your Favorite Weapon by this band that was trying to break into the "scene". Needless to say, I instantly fell in love with the catchy riffs, pop tendencies, sing-a-long choruses, and wry lyrics. I eagerly anticipated what was coming next from the band, and in 2003 picked up their second disc Deja Entendu on the day it came out. I stuck it in my car and tried to rock out and sing along all the way home, felt disappointed when I couldn't, and passed off the disc as terrible. I picked it back up about 2 months after this and listened to it a bit more carefully....and again fell in love with Brand New. The way that they could contrast loud and soft, the way the bared instruments crescendoed into almost epic choruses and breaks, as well as lyrics that made you think...all of it really captured me. Needless to say, this record was a huge underground success and put Brand New on an almost untouchable pedestal in the indie scene. Which brings us to the present.
For seemigly three years Brand New had done pretty much nothing except a few tours. 9 unreleased, unfinished demo tracks were leaked in early 2006, which got people talking, but again no real word from Brand New. Some people passed it off as cockiness, some as pretension, and some as just pure laziness, but Brand New finally broke the silence a few months before the release of their new CD last week, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. They were back.
Now, I love each Brand New cd for a different reason. I love Your Favorite Weapon because it brings me back to early high school...where I could roll down the windows, shout out the lyrics, and get pumped up for 6pm basketball practices. I love Deja Entendu because I think it is one of the best albums front to back that you can find. Each song has a different feel, each song will bring you down and bring you back up, each song really feels like a piece of the whole.
After saying all of this....I am still coming to terms with Devil and God. I want to really like it, I want it to be the best cd of the year. I first heard "Sowing Season (Yeah)" about a month before the cd release and got really excited for the disc. The song starts out from nothing and suddenly erupts into music that makes you want to jump on your bed, run up the wall, and fall down while playing air guitar bent over backwards on your knees. It was the rollercoaster ride that I had really wanted from Brand New. When I got the cd, I eagerly listened to the whole thing right away. My first impression, which is still what I feel, is that this cd never really kicks me in the pants. It's like getting into the blocks at a track meet, hearing "Ready, Set...." and never hearing "Go!". I just kept waiting for it to finally break through and smack me in the face, but it never really came. There are plenty of great songs from the beautiful and haunting, yet catchy "Jesus Christ" to the loud and in your face "Not the Sun" to the grunge feel of "Millstone". However tunes like "Degausser" add a children's shout to the chorus which seems a bit out of place, "Limosine" seems to drag along for its 7 minutes, and "The Archer's Bows are Broken" drives with its drums but has a generic harmonizing chorus and lacks anything memorable for me. The vocals on the cd don't do it for me either. I feel like the screams in "You Won't Know" lack something intangible, and the scratching voice in the first few minutes of "Handcuffs" leaves me wanting more.
My advice on this cd is give it a listen or 6. I still don't know if I like it. I suppose you and I will find out if it makes my top 5 of 2006. Maybe it will take that long for me to wrap my head around the cd and finally realize its greatness...I don't know. But aside from all of this, it is still a good rock cd, and I truly hope that it continues to grow on me. You can listen to a few tracks from all three of Brand New's cds here.
Here are my favorite tracks from Devil and God and Deja Entendu. Enjoy, and Brand New listeners...post some comments....let me know what YOU think of the cd.
Brand New - Jesus Christ
Brand New - Guernica (off Deja)
-and as always...if you are a band or label and would like these songs removed, please contact me and they will be removed immediately...these songs are for sampling purposes only
2 comments:
I agree with your expert opinion. There are a few tracks that jump out as being pretty sweet (Sowing Season, Jesus Christ), although they're no match for some of the tracks from the other albums, but nothing about it makes me want to listen all the way through. Plus, those bastards had three years, so it should be fucking amazing. It's pretty good, but I doubt I'll ever think it's amazing.
XOXO!
~Alec's friend Sarah
really? I disagree, I think YFW has a little something extra to it, like Deja Entendu is good in that it sounds so tired/jaded/disaffected-chic, so it's unique, but it lacks a certain feel to it that YFW has. With this latest album i feel so disappointed. They sound just like many other overproduced bands, esp that one song Archers blahblah, i dislike that song particularly. Maybe i'll like the album in a couple of years.
see but i don't think i am immediately dismissing them as selling out, cause i really liked the new saves the day. so i don't think i will like it in a couple years.
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