The 'Eagle Times' Student Newspaper: Editorials

Brand New rage against, with religion

Commentary By Calla Mounkes

January 10, 2007

Most punk bands seem to shun links to Christianity and Jesus Christ. Oftentimes, music-news reveals another band has renounced their Christian-music status to the perturbed moans of the low-end-of-the-spectrum radio stations. But Long Island denizens Brand New have recently released their junior installation and major-label debut, flaunting a new zest for the deep-rooted divergence that is the religion conflict.

The third album titled "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me" was released Nov. 21 from Interscope records. Following up their previous efforts, "Your Favorite Weapon" (2001) and "Deja Entendu" (2003) seem more easy and free-giving: basically Jesse Lacey, lead vocalist, handing the audience his heart. But their newest album is deeper, a vicious dismantling of the said heart. Offering the fans a vein or two and a big chunk of muscle and maybe an aortic artery gives the crowd everything to create the picture themselves. This much more objective view on the hackney events of their past albums: break-ups and other typical "emo" muses.

The journey from high school crooners to mature musicians becomes evident when "The Devil and God" is first popped in. The CD starts off with a number called "Sowing Season." The song hits you over the head with the brash lyrics, "Was losing all my friends/Was losing them to drinking and to driving/Was losing all my friends, but I got them back," over quiet, unfriendly guitars and then raging into a frenzy of fury that encompasses most of the song only to drop you back down and fade seamlessly into the next track.

Another favorite number is the second-to-last tune on the disc. "The Archers Bows Are Broken" leans in a more socio-political direction asking the tender question of "Who do you carry a torch for my young man?" The song questions the public view of President George W. Bush on his pushing of the Bible, the gay-marriage conundrum, and the, however unintentional, position as a stand-in God for the contemporary American eye. The lyrical scream of "’cause the God I believe never worked on the campaign trail" makes the message clear.

But the gem of the entire release is indeed "Jesus Christ." The ballad chronicles the fearful uncertainty of life-after-death and seems to hollowly echo that God has abandoned humanity for the carelessness and corruptness spreading virally through society. Lines like "Well Jesus Christ, I'm alone again/So what did you do those three days you were dead? / Cause this problem's gonna last more than the weekend. /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?" leave you on the edge, sharpened by Lacey’s voice wobbling on that same precipice of worry and concern for the moment after thinking ceases and we’re possibly handed to those very divinities which may have just forsaken civilization.

"The Devil and God" shows Brand New stepping out of that "emo" box many critics x-ed for them. It is a journey pondering the faith clash, sometimes blasphemously and sometimes reverently, testing out the perfect balance between the two. The band rest on the verge of becoming something completely unknown and the tantalizing possibility of their metamorphosis into the uncharted draws the ears to the speaker.