Brand New – Daisy

This has taken a lot for me to admit, but Your Favorite Weapon is one of my favorite albums…ever. God, that sounds terrible. The lasting quality of that album for me has been amazing. Even though it was released in 2001, I didn’t discover this album until 2003, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was eighteen, it was summer time, I drank a lot. Yes, I was an emo bastard, but even now, in the wake of my less emo days, I still love this album. Perhaps it’s simply the feelings and memories it invokes. It remains the sound track to summer teenage love and broken hearts.

I remember being so excited about discovering these Long Island boys and realizing that they had already released another album, Deja Endendu. I put on my studded belt and sat in the back of the bus all the way down to the mall to get that album, put it on, and wondered, “Who the fuck IS this? What the fuck have they done with Brand New!?”. Oh, that was a sad day in the life of an eighteen year old emo girl.

I never did, and still don’t like that album. With that lukewarm reception, I wasn’t that excited for The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, and that album gave me nothing to change my mind. It’s gotta suck when your first album is well, perfect.

Now, I do admire Brand New for having an absolutely unique sound on every album. Not one of their albums sounds like the prior. Daisy, their new album released last month, is certainly nothing like they’ve ever done before, and it’s just not my thing. I think this might be the case for a lot of Brand New fans actually. That just kinda happens when you don’t provide a cohesive sound of any sort.

This album is polarizing. I don’t know if Jesse Lacey’s been hanging out with Thom Yorke or what, but this one just goes off the deep end. This album is a cacophony of inaudible screams, snarls, yelps, screeching guitars. It’s like an all boy, screamo cover band of Bjiork. It’s obnoxious. It’s terrible. And I’m really sad.

From what I gather, this album is being acclaimed as Brand New’s best, and I just don’t know why. It’s a hot mess. I guess they’re trying to be progressive and cutting edge, but god, it sounds like someone’s toasting a cat (like in a toaster, not with glasses of champagne). What happened to that sad, sad, Jesse Lacey that I knew and loved!?

As for the album, at least it’s well intentioned. The songs are laid out well and there’s a decent mix of rough, raw tracks like “Vices”, “Sink”, “Gasoline”, and “Bought A Bride” to more subtle ones to soften the blows like “Bed”, “You Stole”, and “Daisy”.

From me, this album get’s a big ol’ “…meh”. D

Brand New’s Site