Brand New - Science Fiction (August 17, 2017) [ARCHIVED] Album • Page 492

One of Jesse's best lyrically.

 

I probably find Handcuffs more agreeable than others because my anxiety/depression manifests inwardly in very fucked up ways most of the time, so... well I hate to say I can "relate" because that's not really accurate, but I can understand why thoughts like that exist and how deeply troubling they can be for an individual. I don't blame people for being put off by them, but they work for me.

 

Is their a list of suspected lyrics that Vin wrote?

I'm sensing a theme that I like his lyrics a lot less

 

Is it bad bc it's bad or bad bc you don't understand it? Bc I don't understand it yet lol

 

Thank you for posting this. Awesome listen.

 

A little of both. I think it's kind of awkward and silly, and I have no idea what it means.

The "champ" line is at least easy to understand, even if it's also silly.

 

I don't think that is a bad reading of Handcuffs at all, but I don't really think it makes them good lyrics either. They're still clumsy, and the babies metaphor still registers as purely for shock value to me. Really I just didn't wanna abide the idea that YFW is universally the band's worst lyrics when there are some serious clunkers on Handcuffs and Daisy. And yes YFW has pretty bad lyrics for the most part.

 

Once I understand it I'll decide if I like it or not. I also don't hate that line in bed like other people do lol. I think it's a sort of dark humor lyric that Jesse uses a lot, as pointed out by our professional on site song analyst @CoffeeEyes17

 

On the topic of lyrics, what's everybody's favorite Brand new lyric?

They have so many good ones I'm sure there are a variety of different answers in this thread

 

It's ok but nobody moves is a better better song. I just wonder if it wasn't for the leak, if more of the demos would've ended up on TDAG. Or would we have never heard those songs at all.

 

If I ever come to understand it, maybe I'll appreciate it more. But right now it takes me out of the song (and not in a good way, like when he switches up the melody of the "could never be heaven" line in the last chorus) which the line in "Bed" never really has.

 

yeah that geoff podcast is legit so far, thanks for sharing it

 

"Nobody Moves" might be a better song, but I don't think it would have been a better closer. And no other song from the demos or on the album would really work as the closer, IMO.

 

Now that I have babies that lyric makes me a little upset (I can't help but visualizing them drowning) but maybe that's the point.

 

Ah okay, yea it hasn't ever taken me out of the song. But I understand your point.

 

I will say that I've never understood the complaints about Handcuffs not working musically. I think it's a great way to close out that album. Somber, slow, subdued. Nearly the entire album is bombast; I appreciate that they took the slow-burn approach for the closer.

 

Your right it wouldn't work as a closer. I just really like it haha.

 

lol i didn't know this was a thing in 2008, that's basically apnetfest

THIS IS OLD NOT NEW DON'T GET EXCITED

Alter The Press!: Brand New Nassau Coliseum Show Details

 

Yeah, I love "451" for the most part, but when it gets to that line and the next one (which sounds like "deader than a doornail diner") it loses me for a bit.

 

Others already got there, but the Handcuffs hate is insane to me. I'm very rarely in the position of defending anything BN to anyone on this site, but geez. Yes, the lyrics are uncomfortable, that's the idea. I like it more for the music though anyway, I think in that regard it's a flawless closer.

 

The next line is a reference to some book, it's donner daughter or something. Check on genius

 

Handcuffs makes a ton sense as the closer both lyrically and musically. If Archers was the last big angry outburst of emotions, the cathartic climax in a way, then Handcuffs is the defeated sigh that inevitably comes from such an emotional high.

Lyrically it ties back to a lot of things, crashing a car like in Sowing Season, the death of a child and a crying mother as in Limousine/You Wont Know, the courtroom metaphor has a little political undertone to it like Archers, plus the whole "its hard to be a better man when you forget youre trying" can tie into a lot of the songs like Millstone and Degausser and even Not The Sun.

 

I was fooled

 

its a reference to George Donnor, he was a pioneer of a wagon expedition in the mid 1800s. its said that his expedition got stranded and they indulged in cannibalism, with George supposedly killing and eating his own daughter who was also part of that group.

 

Yeah, the line is "deader than a Donner daughter", but especially on first listen it sounds like "deader than a doornail . . . something".