Long Away From Long Island

The emo alt-rockers known as Brand New have come a long way since their pop/punk roots in Your Favorite Weapon. Every band aspires to truly evolve and change with each new record, but none do it with quite the style like Brand New. Jesse Lacey, frontman and lead writer on their first three albums, takes a backseat to Vin Accardi in Daisy. And from beginning to end you can feel the stark difference from this album compared to the other three.

From "Vices" to "Noro" this is Brand New's heaviest record yet aiming its sights on prog/heavy metal rock. Jesse and Co. self admitted that they wanted to create a record that would be fun to play live and scheduled many days off for fear of the toll this record would take on their voices. If The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was the band in quiet contemplation Daisy finds them in angry resolution. With buzzing guitars, this record is loud -- really loud.

Jesse channels his best Kurt Cobain impression in "Bed." Strangely dark and cryptic, Vin writes the framework for this dark masterpiece. "I don't know what you feel like/Ambushed on the root, stole your gold and you laugh/Everything that you own starts to pile up/Like bones make the walls of your prison." And perhaps the lack of redemption in the lyrics is the main difference between Vin and Jesse. Jesse wrote songs that were drizzled with sadness, but you always felt the tiny vein of hope poking through for air.

Above all things, this is Brand New's most experimental album as well. In "You Stole," Brand New finds itself exploring and experimenting with a surf rock sound. "Be Gone" features a sitar-like imitation with Lacey's voice distorted as if sonically being projected through a body of water. Also they bookcased the album with a gospel hymn called "On Life's Highway" written by Bertrand Brown. Above all though, many will think this album plays up the guitars, but this is album shines due to the drummer, Brian Lane. And producer Mike Sapone, who produced their first album Your Favorite Weapon, gave this album a continuity like none before it.

Only 40 minutes long, the album is quick. Straight to the point. There have been allusions that this may be the last Brand New album, at least with this same lineup. Four albums that altogether are very different yet strangely connected. It's been a decade for these boys turned men and they take nothing for granted. This album is their most creative, cohesive work ever. Deja Entendu may be their crowning achievement, but Daisy takes every opportunity that album gave them and churned out a fiery force that resonates long after the first listen.

Heading a tour that will pack arenas, these guys are a long way from their underground punk roots, yet you never really feel they've ever lost a sense of who they are and what they aim to convey.


9/10


This. Is. Truth.