Description

After Long Island's Brand New released 2003's Deja Entendu, to critical and public acclaim, they promptly dropped off the map for 3 years, to resurface now, at the end of 2006, with "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me". While religious themes do appear on the record, the title actually comes from a conversation lead singer Jesse Lacey had with a schizophrenic friend.

"The Devil and God..." is far more like Deja Entendu that Brand New's first LP "Your Favorite Weapon". It is predominantly slow in pace for a band with punk origins and far darker than any of the bands previous releases.more… First single "Sowing Season (Yeah)", is about finding a way out of alcohol abuse. It's a surprisingly effective intro, that builds from twinkly accoustic sections before crashing into explosive riffs that periodically rise and fall.

Meanwhile, religion seeps in to the album on the first standout track, "Jesus Christ" which is a slow burn melodic track with a muted beat about fears of the afterlife ("well Jesus Christ I'm alone again/what did you do the three days you were dead?/because this problems going to last/more than the weekend").

Most of the songs here are fairly long, Limousine topping out at just under eight minutes. It's another great song though, and one that is reminiscient both sonically and vocally of Radiohead's famous song Paranoid Android. "You Won't Know" is another example of Jesse Lacey's penchant for adroit lyrics ("so they say in heaven theres no husbands or wives/on the day that I go up they'll be completely out of their forgiveness supplies").

After six amazing songs, the album does lose focus somewhat. Theres two perfectly serviceable, but uninspiring instrumentals, "Welcome to Bangkok" and an untitled track. Theres an up-tempo track "Not The Sun" which is a good song that simply suffers in comparisson with the earlier tracks. Low point is definitely Luca, which is a fairly indifferent track which doesn't really have the trademark inventiveness of most Brand New songs. Unfortunately a reprise of the same song is the UK bonus track.

The album goes out swinging though. Penultimate track "Archers" has political undertones about the Bush regime but isn't a two-dimensional bashing of it. It also boasts a fantastic chorus. Ender "Handcuffs" was actually written by Brand New's guitarist Vincent Acardi. Like most Brand New album finishers, it's mostly accoustic although does have some fantastic string instruments kick in at the end. It is essentially from the perspective of a man describing what he would do if he wasn't burdened by conscience ("I'd drown all these crying babies/if I knew that their mothers wouldn't cry/I'd hold them down and squeeze real soft/and let a piece of myself die").

Overall, "The Devil and God..." is a damn fine album, and definitely worth the three year wait. It's as different from "Deja Entendu" as "Deja..." was from "Your Favorite Weapon" and so I'm not going to make comparissons as to which might or might not be better. Simply put, go and get it.

Tracks

---

Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

1    read    add

---

Cover Info:

Title:

Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me (2006) Retail CD

Part:

Back

Dimensions:

1480 x 1293 px

Size:

284 KB

Downloads:

837 (0 today)

Uploaded:

Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

02/02/07 by allcdcovers

Quality Rating:

• Currently /5 Stars.
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Cover not yet rated. Click CDs to vote!

---

Other Available Parts: