Crunchy, clunky and prickly

Long labeled the heroes of the scene after their 2003 album “Deja Entendu” became a life-changing and seminal release for so many fans, Brand New has done all they can to avoid that responsibility ever since.

After the intended follow-up to “Deja” was derailed by the leaking of all the demos online and a series of personal tragedies for the members, it was late 2006 before any official new material hit. That album, “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me,” was exponentially darker, heavier and less personal – but still pretty amazing.

Now another three years have passed and Brand New has become more detached from the excessively fervent fans that follow them, while mentioning this new album, “Daisy” might be their swan song.

And if it is, it’s one hell of a way to go.

Though “Devil and God” was partially devoid of conventional hooks, most of the tracks still built to a crescendo or some sort of epic point. The music on “Daisy” however, is crunchier, clunkier and pricklier. “Gasoline” thumps along aggressively with Brian Lane’s drum work, sounding like a repeated slap to the ears while Jesse Lacey crafts a vicious vocal that’s somewhere between a traditional scream and a growl.

Even in the only track that has any commercial appeal, first single “At The Bottom,” the sound is rough, dark and uninviting. The somewhat bouncy verses build to another loud and hostile chorus, with Lacey spouting far-from-uplifting lyrics like “There’s a lake and the bottom you’ll find all my friends / But they can’t swim because they’re all dead.” And yet, “Bottom” is somehow catchy as hell.

Like on “Devil and God,” Brand New might rely on the quiet-loud-quiet-loud composition too much here, but a number of them are so fantastic and it’s easy to forget. The soft “You Stole” and title track are hauntingly beautiful while the obvious quiet-loud’ers “Bought a Bride” and “In a Jar” are heart-pumping.

With Lacey chanting “I’m on my way to hell“ in the closing effort “Noro” and then it finishing with an old gospel hymn that when appropriated here makes things half-compelling, half-frustrating, “Daisy” comes to a fitting end. Brand New have compelled and frustrated their fans for years now, and if it all ends this way, this is the best way they could have ended it.