Brand New – The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me

When Brand New came out with their sophomore record three years ago, it was all anybody was talking about. Wherever you looked, they were praising and raising Deja Entendu to the rafters, it seemed like everyone and their mother’s dog was in love with Jesse Lacey and his Long Island brethren. But other than the absolutely phenomenal Okay, I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t, I was incredibly bored with almost every other track on the release and couldn’t comprehend why it was received so much praise. Although, over the three year break between Deja Entendu and their follow up, The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me, certain tracks on Deja Entendu started to grow on me and as the hyped started to build I grew some slight anticipation for the record. When I finally sat down and listened to it, I could finally see the appeal of Brand New and while they’re not quite worthy of all the hype they get, I can understand why they get it too.

For you see, the songs on here that are good tend to be more than just good, but instead are pretty much amazing. Why are they amazing? The answer is pretty much because of Lacey’s passionate and unique vocal delivery. His delivery is almost impossible to be coined as “singing” as he pretty much just speak-sings everything, but it works more than all the blood curling screams that are clogging the airwaves these days ever could. They are passionate, soulful and fix the spacious musical backdrop perfectly. The little spontaneous aspects like the stutter on Jesus Christ help to secure the power of the words in your mind, making it so you remember every word even though they forgo the regular verse-chorus-verse song format.

That, in a way, is another aspect of Lacey’s skill that impresses me so much; his spectacular lyrical powers (which makes it a shame that the the lyrics don’t come with the booklet). The album sees Lacey battling with demons inside himself (hence the title) and he really hits the religious aspects right on the mark. Jesus Christ sees him battling with the idea of mortality and the after-life (Well Jesus Christ, I’m not scared to die/ I’m a little bit scared of what comes after/ Do I get the gold chariot?/ Do I float through the ceiling?/Do I divide and fall apart?) while Millstone has Lacey reflecting on his life and the changes that has happened (I used to make my parents proud./ I was the glue that kept my friends together,/ Now they don’t talk and we don’t go out.) And Limousine (MS Rebridge)? Well that’s just a great love song. His lyrics are amazing, and with the way he spits them out at you, you’re just left in awe.

At the same time, while the ups are up high, the downs on this album are equally as low. While the sparse, spacious melodies help take Brand New to a level of their own, it can also become stale and stagnant after the fifth five minute track. With many of the tracks having stretched out outros, there’s no need for two instrumentals; and when Lacey loses his passionate touch on a few songs (Luca), they just become boring and long. It is during those short instances that I remember why I left Deja Entendu in it’s CD case for so much of the past three years.

Luckily though, the highs more than out number the lows; and Jesus Christ is almost on par with the awesomeness that is Okay, I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t. The CD is far from great, but it is good, and it’s incredibly evident as to why they get so much hype.