After years of waiting, and scraps of demos and live versions of new songs, Brand New have just released their new album “Science Fiction”.
How does it stack up against their catalogue? How is it as a stand-alone album in 2017? Let’s see!!
Brand New and I
I have a long-standing relationship with the music of Brand New. Having been rudely awoken when listening to “Luca” more often than I’d like to admit. Walking to work with an MP3 player that could hold one album, and listening to Deja Entendu constantly for months. Getting my head into “Daisy” and eventually finding it to be my most re-visited album of theirs in recent years.
Of course, none of this would have happened if I hadn’t fallen in love with the bridge of “Seventy times 7” when I was a teen, in awe of the lyricism and raw energy.
Brand New would sit comfortably within my “top 10 bands of all time” list, with a discography that I love from start to finish.
That’s not to say that I’m biased. I listen to all albums objectively (I’m such a fun guy!), and we all know those bands that have a slip-up in their catalogues.
The process
This is going to be my first review/album piece here, and I want to make sure I do it right.
I was going to do “Mean Everything to Nothing” by Manchester Orchestra, but I’ve been blind-sided by Brand New, so I need to have a week or so of listening to it in different environments and giving it time to digest.
I listen to albums in a few places:
- Car (on my 40 minute commute to and from work) – This is prime album time;
- At work – One earphone in, stopping and starting as the day goes. It’s inconsistent and not ideal for reviewing, but a great way to see how it settles into the background, and how much I pick up from it when I’m listening passively;
- Running – When I’m out on a big run on Saturday morning, I get by, by having music to keep me going. I zone in and out of the songs, and this will be a great way to see how much I take in;
- Mowing the lawn – Yep, I’m an exciting dude! So, I mow the lawn and listen to albums in full, my focus is more on the music than the mowing (it’s pretty simple!), so I really get to get my head into an album.
Over a week or so I’ll end up listening to this album a lot, and I’ll have a proper opinion formed shortly thereafter.
Time to get started!