A long time ago, a friend handed me a copy of an album called Deja Entendu and I was hooked on Brand New. Then, I went back and listened to Your Favourite Weapon. I thought they were amazing. Along came The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me, and despite what people say, I couldn't see anything in it. So, with an open mind, I'm round to reviewing their latest album, Daisy.
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On first listen, Jesse Lacey was right when he told Kerrang! magazine:
"We were thinking a lot more about what we'd want to play when we were up onstage rather than actually what you'd want to hear on a record"
There were times when I thought "This is a shoegaze album"; there were others where I had to check if I hadn't put 'shuffle' on and ended up with Modest Mouse instead. It's not what you expect from Brand New if you're only just picking up Deja Entendu, but, it's a definite progression along the line they've already been taking. It's 'punk', because they're playing for their own benefit, not the benefit of the fans.
They start off rocky, but, once you get into the mindset that "This album is not for me. It is for them to enjoy playing". Once you're there, it's actually not a bad album. It's got those elements that a lot of people will turn their noses up at, whether it's the shoegaze stylings of 'Bed', or the punky 'Gasoline'. But, doesn't any album.
My only other thought on this many-faceted obelisk in the middle of the desert of 'half-decent-bands-that-should-be-featured-on-EmoGame' is that I like it, but I don't. And I feel pressured, by the mass media (i.e Kerrang! and RockSound) to mark it highly, because it does exactly what it says on the tin, and offers no qualms about putting music on there that Brand New would enjoy.
But, having said that (and started my sentence with a conjunction), I'd feel like I wasn't doing my unpaid, unbaised, 'for the public' job, if I walked away from this album giving it a score that was higher than it warranted. It's got promise. But it's a disjointed promise, like the crooked smile on the crooked man when he sees the crooked house is actually less crooked than he hoped. It's not quite right. It's just...a mixtape.
Overall: 5/10 - I've given it a listen; I've enjoyed roughly half of it. So, the average Brand New fan might enjoy roughly a third of it. It's just an album. It is not the messiah; it's a very naughty boy.
Top Track; Gasoline
