Brand New Band • Page 349

Life is just going really really good and I've been really busy haha. School / I've been dating someone for almost a month now and it's been awesome! :)

Still no brand new anything though hahah :/

@Dirty Sanchez i really hope everything you said is true

 

Yea but we cant complain bc we got goodness this year

 

Nice! I saw that in Facebook man, congrats on that!

 

Backtracking a little, but TDAG and Daisy are the two I'd say mean the most to me. Deja was a great album for a certain time in my life and really helped me through post-breakup trauma and was something I connected with pretty heavily, but I just can't say it appeals to my musical sensibilities as much these days. Still love to hear it live though, most of the tracks are good to jam.

 

Thing I love most about Brand New is how each album appeals to specific things that are happening in my life at any one time, like was Daisy a few months ago, more Deja now...I could rank them, and would probably always but Devil and God as #1 objectively, but all three mean a lot to me...sorry YFW I still love you

 

your opinions are always interesting to read haha. I am pretty sure you're most vocal person I've seen who is like "this band would not be on my radar without Daisy" and I love that. I half agree about Deja's production, I feel like it affects some songs more than others

 

this band wouldn't be on my radar if it wasn't for favorite weapon. knew something special about them then, and I enjoy favorite weapon but don't listen to it much these days

 

I heard YFW for the first time in late 2008, and I was confused.

 

Your Favorite Weapon was my first one and it was the first time I heard pop/emo punk be kind of clever and self aware which was cool. obvi was kind of ratcheted up on Deja so like there's nothing much that makes me wanna go back besides my love for a few of the cuts but. in a nostalgia way

 

like knowing some of those lyrics as well as I do/did makes me feel like not a great person, but idk at least I never identified with Jude Law very much. the grown ass dudes at shows who call out for that one with fervor scare me

 

If they only played from devil and god daisy and demos I would be happy but I enjoy deja and favorite weapon songs when they play them

 

Deja songs should def stay in rotation, no need to drain an already small drawing pool

 

Hahaha, I'm glad someone likes reading them. Daisy is the only Brand New album I think is as good as people say Brand New albums are, and it seems to be the least favorite so I try to balance it all out. Deja was made like 20 minutes from my house so I have a little bit of like, guilt by association for that one. Like "sorry my state is linked to the production on Deja.". Haha

 

I think finally Daisy is getting the praise and love it deserves in the past few years, which is cool. I think Daisy is perfect and so is Devil and God. Deja I think is great bc production doesn't tend to bother me except for once in a blue moon, and I don't think production detracts from songwriting for me if I can hear everything that's going on. I do think "Good To Know If I Ever Need Attention..." suffers from the production the most, it could've been really explosive I think.

 

The choruses are definitely where it falls most flat. Deja has an almost formulaic "big" chorus thing going throughout it, but the production makes them all sound flat. The vocal layering and dryness is a bit jarring too, I'd have to listen again to pinpoint exact songs/moments, but I do remember thinking some sounded like demos. I might be too critical here though. haha

 

Not sure why exactly but I've been revisiting YFW more than than the others in the last month or so. I think I may have burnt out on the rest over the summer and needed something fresh. I'm sure it will pass though.

 

the interesting thing about this band is that they almost never didn't use the whole anthemic chorus thing. Deja and YFW are a little more obvious, but all their albums feature it to an extent, but the music almost doesn't match such a feel. It's an interesting dynamic on Devil and Daisy especially. I really think the choruses sound great on a lot of their hits on that album (Sic Transit, Okay, Quiet Things, Play Crack, Jaws Theme) and the others fall flat more often because they aren't as good as the verses. I do agree that "Guernica" and "Good To Know" suffer the flat chorus as opposed to not being a good one, even though they're otherwise good songs. I actually love the vocal layering, and but it's clumsily done about half the time. I think Me Vs Maradona used it the best. I don't think you're being too critical, these are valid faults -- I just have a history and personal connection to Deja that makes me sort of overlook them. It being one of the first "scene" albums means I really had no knowledge about this kind of thing outside of whether or not I like the song, so going back and retroactively listen for these details is difficult for me because of that sense of familiarity.

 

I definitely have an outsiders opinion on the band since I heard this band for the first time in 2014. haha I'm really happy so many people connect so strongly to Deja. But yeah, I do love the big chorus thing they do a lot of the time. And I will say, The Devil and God might have the best production of any rock record, ever, so that kind of makes up for Deja. I think I might have liked Deja more than The Devil and God if it had been produced like The Devil and God was.

 

An outsiders opinion is good for this band. Love them to death, Daisy and Devil and God maybe more than anything else were highly formative for me, but to say they aren't overhyped is probably incorrect. A more impartial lens is necessary. I can't imagine Devil and God production on Deja at all tbh. Like there's an element of youthfulness that I hear on Deja that I think adds to the feel of the album, and I don't think that element exists on Devil and God.

 

That's true. So I don't know. I'd love for them to re-record Deja with cleaner production maybe, just to see if it would really make me like the album more. I also imagine Jesse is a much better vocalist now than he was in 2003. haha

 

Good To Know is one of the best Brand New songs ever and someone on this page said its chorus falls flat. That ain't right.

 

Not to put words in their mouth, but I think they meant purely in terms of the vocal production. In a chorus as good as that they should be front and centre, made clear as possible but instead I hear them sounding a little muddy, especially when the vocals in the verses sound clear as they do. It certainly isn't a bad song or chorus in terms of the song itself, but in my mind at least it doesn't pop quite like it should.

 

I really wish there was more to talk about by now. Ah well I've been focused on all things folk. I will admit though that I get so curious when I try and think what Brand New will sound like in 2016/2017. Like once we get an album worth of songs. I hope it surprises me.

 

Yeah I'll agree that Good to Know and Guernica definitely don't feel like the choruses are these massive things. Just kinda feel like the same as everything else

 

It's a good song! But that's one of the ones that I could always kind of see the production complaints on. Like, that song sounds like it's supposed to be explosive at the chorus, and the rest seems like a precursor to the bands tendency to jam out live, but the production, whether it be the recording or the mix doesn't give it that oomph and sense of urgency that I think it deserves. I've never seen a live version of that one, but I'm sure that one would be a great live cut.