It all started by accident. It was 2001. I was a lost cause. That’s how I felt from my first day of high school until that day in 2006 when I started University. Some things just stay with you. Luckily, I destroyed it. Its ghost likes to haunt me sometimes, but I ignore it. My love for Brand New was by accident. I was listening to Morrissey, as usual and I saw something that said “bands influenced by Morrissey.” So my curious mind went with it. Some of the bands were truly awful. I have no idea what influenced them, but it sure as hell wasn’t Morrissey.
I clicked on a song to listen to. The title intrigued me because it just seemed a bit depressing. The No Seatbelt Song. The song broke my teenage heart. The song became a borderline obsession. I managed to drag myself away from it. Then I heard Seventy Times Seven. Every ounce of angst and rage I ever felt was being summed up in this song. Feeling so useless and disgusting never felt so fucking good. I’d play it all the time. It was like a prayer. It was everything I wanted to say but couldn’t say. Brand New say the things I could never say. Right now, I can relate to more of their songs than I could imagine. It just proves that they instantly became a highly influential band. Maybe not for you to start your own band, but for you to realise how you feel- and why you feel that way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h30yHDU_muE
Your Favourite Weapon is poetic fury and pissed off feelings- your standard batch of teenage angst at its finest.
Then along came Déjà Entendu. This album is one of the few albums that I will always struggle to put into words, to just describe how it makes me feel. What it did for me, and what it still does. Jesse’s lyrics on this record are enough to make the strongest person in the world have a minor breakdown. I remember when I first heard The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot and just cried. If you’ve ever felt like you’re in the way of a person, a burden or just a waste of a person- you will feel this song. If someone has ever meant so much to you, but the words are forever lingering on your tongue- this song is for you. The last verse is love at its poetic best. The last line always gets to me, “You are the smell before rain. You are the blood in my veins.” If you’ve ever loved, you will understand this line more than you wish to. This record is so pure and honest; if you don’t have it in you to love it- then you’ve probably never felt real human emotion. The first record just reeked of heartbreak and anger, but with Déjà Entendu it just pours out so much wisdom, and in a way-patience. Jesse’s lyrics on this album are vulnerable, and this vulnerability makes it so easy to relate to. When someone is that open with their music, you honestly cannot help but feel every single word. I bet you still play this record and scream along to every single word now as if it was written for you. There’s a part on this album, in a song that, for me always ALWAYS makes me want to weep out of sheer joy. Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don’t is one of my favourite Brand New tracks, and it is one I have been listening to a lot at the moment. Recently I paid extremely close attention to when Jesse screams “This is the reason you fall.” The way he screams this line has lately made me really feel the song. Lyrically, it is one of my favourites. It is made up of lines that make you understand just how much Morrissey was and is an influence to him. As a huge Morrissey fan, I’ll admit I was reluctant those years ago to listen to Brand New. I just thought they’d be another rip off. Far from it. So far from it. You can see how they are influenced but by no means are they a carbon copy. I think this song also has one of my favourite lines ever in a song. A line that I have firmly related to since the very first time I heard it. You think when you hear something so long ago; it will gradually lose its meaning. Not always. If anything, the line means more to me now than it did when I first heard it. The specific line I am talking about is, of course “My tongue’s the only muscle in my body that works harder than my heart.” One simple line just evokes so much truth. Last year saw Guernica be far more apt to my life than I ever wanted it to. The line, “….remove whatever makes you hurt, but I am too weak to be your cure.” Just summed up everything. If someone so close to you becomes sick, you’ll fully understand. There was a time where listening to it became too much, I just couldn’t. But it gradually became my safety net, and comfort blanket. I could write about this album until my hands become numb from typing, but I’ve got to move on before I rant like I’ve never ranted before.
The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me; aside from being my favourite album title of all time, it is also my favourite Brand New record. This record came out when I was figuring out who and what I was- and more than likely, hating it. This record along with a few others eased the process of me becoming okay with who I was. I gave up trying to this record. I gave up trying to be what was expected of me to this record. I see this as a positive; I don’t know if others will. However, I’ve learnt to never care again what they or anyone thinks.
What I love about the third record is how painfully deep the lyrics are. Lyrics are a big deal for me. I can’t connect over a key change. I connect over a phrase- and how it is said. Every single song on The Devil And God…is so heartbreakingly easy to relate to. I don’t want to get too personal because you don’t need to hear it- and I honestly don’t know how I’d word it.
There’s certain lyrics on this record that just make me think, “Have you been living in my head?” As a 25 year old who is still trying to take in the universe, I can relate more to this record as I get older. I’ll never know enough, I will never learn enough- I may never be sure of many things. Records like this make being an adult less hard. They say being a teenager is chore- adulthood isn’t exactly a stroll in the park now is it. I’m not saying I hate it, far from it. I love getting older. You appreciate things more- twinges of understanding come through more. The song that I brutally identify with is Milestone. To be honest, I don’t get how you can listen to that song and not see yourself in it. There’s just certain lines that make me freeze with how in awe I am of the way Jesse writes, and how he can get to the very bone of how YOU feel- because it is how he feels. I find a lot of comfort in this record now, more than when I first heard it because I’m older- and he was of course older when he wrote it. It just goes back to the constant growing pains we face all the time. The line I think that really gets to me is “I used to pray like God was listening. 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.” If a person was to ask me what line from a song sums up anything and everything I feel, and have ever felt- it’d be that. Then you have a line from Degausser, “I can’t shake this little feeling. I never get anything right.” You can shake off the self doubt you carry, but it has a tendency to leave an unwanted trace sometimes.
The songs are delicate, and as Jesse screams the words it is almost like he is screaming out your frustrations. He is your voice.
I’ll admit, I’ve not heard Daisy. I’m still stuck in awe with The Devil And God….I don’t think I am ready to hear it just yet. I know it’s been a while, but I don’t think I can listen to it just yet. Maybe it makes me a shit fan; I don’t know. I really don’t.
There is so much I could say about Brand New, but my love for them is private. I have a few bands that I hold like this. I have a few bands that I tend not to let me love for them shine out. Of course I have no problem with pouring out my love for Warpaint or Morrissey onto a page- but there is something about Brand New that I hold very dear to me. Maybe it’s because it is emotionally exhausting to write this way- but it is the only way I know how. I try hard to avoid being personal, and I know it is a horrific and shit way to write. I keep trying to stop, but I can’t. If you have no feeling about something, ignore it- I suppose. Brand New are the light at the end of that fucking tunnel that has fast become the bane of your life. Brand New are a crutch. They are the God to your Devil. They exorcise all the badness inside and make you feel human for feeling that way. Like I said before, they say the things you wish you could say. It makes you feel okay with it, because at least someone can get the words out. They get the words out better than you could’ve hoped for or ever imagined.
Beat In My Bones. 