Brand New - Daisy

Daisy didn't quite live up to Brand New's previous two albums to me, which is pretty understandable since they're one of my favorite bands and those are two of my favorite releases of the decade. Honestly, it didn't grab me much at all at first, though I found myself warming up to it through multiple listens. It's another step forward in their journey from poppy emo band to... something else, and by this point they're hardly the same act anymore. A lot of groups change their sound over time, few seemingly reinvent themselves every couple years. The jump from their last album might actually be the smallest in the history, but it still feels significant.

After the first track begins with an excerpt from an old recording of "On Life's Highway", it slaps you in the face with an explosion of noise in the most aggressive song the band has ever recorded, pretty much straight out of the hardcore genre. What follows is a lot of loud guitars and shouting, punctuated by the rare moment of calm before yet another storm. I'm not sure what's making them angrier than ever these days, although once you get more familiar with the songs you can see how it hasn't really affected their writing ability. The lyrics aren't up to the standards of the extremely clever Deja Entendu, but they're still noticeably better than The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. And despite the frequent raging loudness, they still do a lot of interesting things here and there to spice it up. You have to respect a band that can do an entire track as unique as "Be Gone", even if it is brief.

It's hard to say too much about any individual track, they all come together pretty cohesively into a pretty easy album to listen to repeatedly. The single "At the Bottom" is a good choice, accessible enough for most people but still hinting at exactly what the album sounds like. My favorite track might be the push and pull of "You Stole", which is also the longest if you don't include the reprise of "On Life's Highway" at the end of "Noro", another good song. "Gasoline" and "Bought a Bride" are both notable for their infectious nature despite the overt hardness, and the title track is quite good as well. I don't love Daisy as much as their previous work, but there's not very much I don't like to it.