Greg Stout
Review
Alternative rock band Brand New, has failed to disappoint once again with the release of their fourth full-length album “Daisy”. Through out the history of the band, beginning in 2001, Brand New have always been able to dodge the pressure of the music industry by not sticking to one style of sound of music and being on their own in the alternative-rock world.
Their punk rock style that first caught my attention in 2001 with the release of “Your Favorite Weapon” seems to never be completely lost no matter how far they progress with their music. Growing up at the same time Brand New is also growing as a band amazes me in the fact that they are the only band that I still listen to as much as I listened to them in high school. As my taste in music shifts in the years past and coming, Brand New seems to always keep up with the changing taste.
Daisy is by far their most experimental and gut wrenching album. The band have always been very heavy in their vocals, with straight to the point lines that kick you right in the chest. With lines like “Have another drink and drive yourself home…and you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt and again when your head goes through the windshield.” taken from the song Seventy Times 7 from “Your Favorite Weapon”. That style still shows up in their newest album in the song At the Bottom with the line “And there’s a lake and at the bottom you’ll find all our friend, they don’t swim ‘cause they’re all dead.”
Their new album explores a side that was briefly visited in “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me” letting the emotion shine through the instrumentals. Relaxing on the cut to the point lyrics, and amping up the rawness and explosiveness of their distorted guitars and hard-hitting drums. Putting their fans to test on the ability to see the reasoning behind the shift. Starting the CD off with a soft piano and a woman’s beautiful voice singing some lullaby, and then jumping right into the CD as Jesse Lacey’s ear shattering style of screaming interrupts the softness of the woman’s voice. This gives the listener a sense that they are in for a ride with this album. Through out the entire album the contrast between relaxed and out of control music is brought right up front and presented to the listener.
As my taste in music changes, Brand New seems to find a way to still be considered as my favorite band. They operate separately from the common music scene and break away from classic genres of music and create their own sound.
As a fan of Brand New for quite some time now I was happy to see someone write about them. While I personally did like all the references to previous albums, I thought you could have gone into a little more specific details of the new album. I feel like this is a tease and I want to know more.
ReplyDeleteGreg, overall, this is a great piece, but I feel that your lead could use some work. You might try using "Brand New" creatively in a sentence to make a play one words. For example, I just picked up my "Brand New" c.d. The opening just seems a little bit bland, and leaves me to wonder if I should read the rest. I love how you reference on of the band's previous albums in your review, this gives us something to compare it to, and something else to listen to. You also went into detail about the type of instruments used in this band, on this album, as well as how they use these instruments on this album.
ReplyDeleteI love your phrase "ear shattering style of screaming". Good job!
Brand New is my favorite band as well, and i think you could have pulled in some interviews with jesse lacey about how their cd's are a coming of age story and how some of the stories that inspired they're lyrics. like seventy times seven is a biblical reference and the song is about how the singer from taking back sunday had sex with his girlfriend. they were best friends before.
ReplyDeletestuff like that would get the readers more interested. other wise the language was really nice.