After the previous two albums, I’ve come to learn that there is a certain state of mind a person has to be in when listening to a new Brand New album.  This is especially true when the person is a fan.  Each album manages to sound almost nothing like the one that came before, which is both a good and a bad thing.  It is good because they don’t get stuck in one sound so each album is fresh.  It is bad because if you loved the last Brand New album, there is no guarantee that you will enjoy the new one.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first album, but Deja Entendu and The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me have permanent spots on my list of favourite albums.  So when it finally came time for a new album I was excited enough to preorder it with a shirt before I knew what the artwork would look like, but deep down I was nervous.  I dodged all of the leaks and had only heard “At the Bottom” before I got Daisy.  After over a month of listening, the time has come to write down my thoughts.

I’m going to spare anyone who doesn’t want to read the whole thing and say right now that I once again thoroughly enjoy the new Brand New album.  It sounds different, nothing like I had imagined, but Brand New has once again made me love their new sound.  The sound is rougher, more varied in my opinion, and possibly even darker than ever before.

Although the last two albums were significant steps forward instrumentally this one doesn’t raise the bar much further.  That is fine with me, since The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me was superb.  There is a little less wild experimentation as well, confining it to “Be Gone” and the end of “Gasoline”.  The vocals have made a shift for the screamy on several of the tracks, but it doesn’t dominate the album as much as the first track might imply. The screaming style does a good job of contrasting Jesse Lacey’s often soft and emotional vocals, and contributes to the dark, violent turmoil that is conveyed through the lyrics.

I’m not sure if the album is as strong lyrically as the previous albums, but there is still plenty of poetry to be found.  There are a couple trends lyrically throughout the album that I noticed, mainly religion, death, forests (trees, seeds, etc), and fire.  Religious references in Brand New’s music aren’t new and neither is death, but the other two stand out significantly compared to previous albums where this type of linking between songs doesn’t happen very often.  The forest imagery is often used in dark ways but can also serve as a way to convey growth; “turn into seeds, to roots and then grass”.  Fire is even an even more common theme, primarily providing a violent element to the songs.

I won’t be numerically rating albums, but this is one of my favourite albums that has come out this year.  A full review of the album, song by song, can be read on the next page.  To wrap up this short version, here are my three stars for the album along with my my least favourite, which are difficult choices to make.

1st Star – Daisy
2nd Star – Bought a Bride
3rd Star – You Stole
Least Favourite – In a Jar

Additional Links
Official band website
Brand New on Wikipedia
Daisy on Amazon.com

1. The Quick Review 2. Song by Song Review

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