Brand New- Daisy (*****)

Let’s get something clear: Brand New is dead.

Daisy is evidence of that.

This album isn’t a charmingly witty take on pop-punk. It’s also not a hyper verbose and dreamy homage to the Smiths and Built To Spill. There is no God here for the Devil to fight, and at times fans might not even know if Brand New (as they know them) are here.

This is Daisy, and it will eat your babies.

After another long extended absence, the Long Island 5 piece returns with a record that is all fire and brimstone, full of noisy riffs, gut wrenching screams, and dense atmospheres. While vocalist/guitarist Jesse Lacey has taken a backseat to guitarist Vinnie Accardi’s writing for this record, it’s clear that the band worked as a solid unit with a very focused mindset to craft this 40-minute monster.

Beginning with an old timey phonograph and 30s inspired jazz singer, “Vices” quickly gives way to manic chaos and dissonant riffs. Instruments slam into each other with caustic fury and Garrett Tierney’s bass holding the song steady. Lacey’s raspy screams and Brian Lane’s spacious drumming beat on the eardrums. Brand New have always enjoyed a level of energy in their work, but on “Vices” and on the rest of Daisy, they’re never felt so visceral.

This can be attributed to two very specific things: A) Brand New’s sudden fascination with the blues and B) Their urge to play far more groove oriented music. From Accardi’s searing lead work on “Bought A Bride” to the seductive verses in “Sink” Brand New have flavored their riffs with a blues overtone that adds to Daisy’s old feel. Listeners will find that despite being produced in 2009, the old sermon snippets and vinyl pops make the record feel like something you’d find in an attic. This sudden southern flair has added an interesting dimension to their sound, one that compliments Daisy’s raw feel while adding something new to Brand New’s sonic palate.

And when it comes to groove, Brand New have some seriously hypnotic ones. The album’s title track stomps and grinds along aside mournful gang vocals and spidery guitar lines. Elsewhere, the album’s closer “Noro” wheezes and lurches its way down into the bowels of hell with Tierney’s over fuzzed bass and Accardi’s twangy lead work. The band carries over the same of foreboding that they had on The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me, but the songs on Daisy are looser, more claustrophobic, and a lot messier.

Yet it’s the lyrics that really grip listeners, both for their unflinching honesty and tragic frustration.

While many die-hard fans will complain about their directness, Daisy seems to be fixated around the afterlife, the evil that permeates the human condition, and the dangers of religious evangelism. On the smoldering “Gasoline” Lacey screams, “So there's a sickness and it's goin' round/But no one's got a vaccine/And they can drown in holy water/But I think it's time we all come clean…”

Suffice to say, Brand New aren’t a band to mince words, and the binge and purge writing is big part of Daisy’s allure.

While it’s unclear who wrote which songs (All lyrics credited to Accardi/Lacey) what IS clear is how these men in there 30s still feel lost, forlorn, and uncomfortable about where they are in the lives. “Bought A Bride” tackles the unnerving truths of settling down for the sake of direction, “Should've been a soldier/I could've fought and died/There's no revolution/So I bought a bride…” while “Daisy” paints a larger more existential quandary as Lacey chants, “Well if you take all these things and bury the past/And pray that they turn to seeds and roots and then grass/It'll be alright/It's alright/It'd be easier that way…” Brand New’s imagery tends to revolve a great deal around nature this time around; a push towards something more basic or even human, and the results hold a more somber sense of melancholy than past albums.

In any event, both men are preoccupied with how social institutions are fleeting, and that there is a moral/spiritual decay we should be conscious of. On the album’s crowning achievement “You Stole,” Lacey gently whispers over delicate and dreamy guitar lines, “So if I'm a liar/And you're a thief/At least we both know where the other one sleeps/So let's end this tonight…” While the rest of the track rumbles forward with crashing riffs, Lacey’s voice adds a sense of majesty to the white noise confusion and gentle atmospheres.

And what it ultimately comes down to is how well Brand New’s songwriting is maturing with their age. The short answer? Like fine wine.

Daisy isn’t always messy and dissonant, the off-timed jazzy twinkling of “Bed” offering atmosphere and haunting visuals, but make no mistake that it is a record that requires multiple listens because of how raw it is.

Yet at the same time it’s subversive, a record will get under people’s skin while they unpack it and spend time with it. Daisy is a rare record because while most bands can easily do a stylistic overhaul, not many maintain the same sense of voice and honesty as Brand New has. In their interviews and on record, Brand New are a band that refuses to cater to what’s expected of them, and as a result, they are able to carry forward sonically while maturing with that special world perspective that makes them so unique.

So perhaps it’s best that the Brand New, as world knows them, is dead. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t have been able to forge forward and make a record like Daisy.

Key Cuts: Bed, You Stole, Bought A Bride

Sounds Like: Thickfreakness (The Black Keys), Loveless (My Bloody Valentine), In Utero (Nirvana)

Click on the artwork to sample some of Daisy for yourself!