When I was but a wee sophomore in college in 2006, Brand New came to play. This was after they had released their so-called \u2018masterpiece\u2019 The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me<\/i>. The band was bored on stage and subsequently bored the audience. They didn\u2019t seem to care, so we didn\u2019t either. I have never understood the massive cult-like following behind this band. To me, they always seemed like the ultimate downer emo band, like The Smiths but with way more whining.<\/p>\n
To that end, on their first album in eight years and possibly their last, the emo superstars return with their own distinctly different alternative rock sound. Opening track \u201cLit Me Up\u201d doesn\u2019t really start until two minutes in and is very melancholy, with low chords and a jarring melody that makes it hard to really get into. It\u2019s a very moody track, still sounding very emo all these years even after emo left the mainstream.<\/p>\n
\u201cCan\u2019t Get It Out\u201d is the main single and sounds a bit like Brand New of old. It\u2019s catchy and you almost don\u2019t want to like it. But it\u2019s an undeniably great song and ends up pulling you in, showing that the band still has a little bit of that old magic all this time later. \u201cWaste\u201d is quite slow, but some people would probably dig it; it\u2019s okay, but nothing to really scream and shout about. \u201cNo Control\u201d is the most emo track here: slow, moody, and full of angsty teenage attitude. It\u2019s not a personal favorite.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould Never Be Heaven\u201d is a ballad that is one of the highlights of the album and dare, I say it, is actually quite a good song. Damn, I haven\u2019t said that about this band since 2003!<\/p>\n
\u201c137\u201d is another slower song that still comes across pretty good and is another notable track. They\u2019ve slowed down the angst over the years, but they still manage to get through to their audience. The intro to \u201cOut Of Mana\u201d seems like Brand New circa 2003 and the fans certainly dig that, though there\u2019s not much else there that\u2019s worth the time or effort to recommend. \u201cDesert\u201d is another slow jam but I kinda dig it. This record really wasn\u2019t as overrated and godawful terrible as I thought it would be.<\/p>\n
The eight minute closer \u201cBatter Up\u201d is another slow jam. The band really does come across like the Smiths now, full of moody attitude but wisened in age so they don\u2019t sound so overly whiny about everything anymore. All in all, this not a terrible record but I still don\u2019t feel like Brand New is worthy of all the heaps of praise poured over them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":33269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6883],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-45079","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-brand-new","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/45079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=45079"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=45079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}