This album was released six years ago. I didn’t know who I was six years ago. If I were to guess, I was just a kid in 6th grade with my biggest worry being whether or not I should procrastinate homework for another hour or two. Things change. Brand New isn’t a band who is foreign to that concept, as their namesake should hint. Six years ago, Brand New released their most controversial album, Daisy. For reference, this album was the follow up to their masterpiece, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Anything they would’ve done after that would definitely be regarded as inferior to their third album, so Brand New had a different idea in mind. In a band’s story, a lot of people view their choices in two manners: progression or regression. This is why many people see Daisy as a bad album. I am of the minority that Daisy is proof of a third option: rediscovery. A band should not be afraid to experiment if they have the ideas to back that urge up.
Press play and you’re met with a woman singing about God in an old fashioned manner. This is a theme of the record. Daisy is about the old and what they’ll become. It’s about growth and destruction. It’s about nature and fire. So when I tell you not to get comfortable, take my advice and don’t, because if you allow yourself to be immersed in her song, you will be caught in the explosion of the guitars that shortly follow. “Vices” is what opens the record and it makes sure you won’t forget it. This is only the beginning of the loudness, as a few tracks later, you’re met with the aggressive howls of “Gasoline” and “Sink”. When the album wants to be angry, it will show no remorse. Lyrics like “You think that no one else is lonesome / You think you’re the only one” and “If you want to sink / Then I’m gonna let you” have no problem spelling that out real clear.
But sometimes, Daisy doesn’t want to yell. Sometimes, it’s afraid of itself and shows the fear of not what it can become, but the moments we’re taught to admire. “At The Bottom” is a track that highlights that worry. What’s your ideal goal in life? To marry and spend your whole life with the one you love? Okay, Brand New knows that. In fact, they feel the same as you. But consider this: During your last days, you find yourself alone. Everyone you have ever loved is in a coffin. You have nothing to do but waste your last moments in alcohol, contemplating whether your life was worth it if all that brought you up is the reason why you can’t be happy on your own. Nothing in this world is innocent. A deer can be shot. A dog can be run over. Joy can fade. Another track that shows the cruelty of life is the slow song “You Stole”. “We all go to sleep in the same place / And in the morning hope that we’re all the same / Just sit around like broke down cars in the lot waiting for repairs”. This song showcases one of my favorite moments in the album, because even though this song isn’t lacking in ways to show the listener that the calm can’t exist forever, they choose to ignite the song with beauty. Shortly after the song bursts into flames, it is doused by the sound of rain, letting us know that things will always go back to normal.
That’s the second theme of the record: monotony. In this record, we are taught that we will leave this world in the same state it was from when we found it if we decide to do nothing about it. The title track does the best at describing this to us:
“Well if we take all these things
And we’ll pray that they turn into seeds,
It’d be all right, it’s all right,
Or if the sky opened up and started pouring rain
to start things over again
It’d be all right, it’s all right,
So let this be a message to you all. Brand New can stay the same or they can change. If it all depends on them, then they chose to go against the grain. They will either grow a forest for us to thrive in or burn it all down if they can no longer create.
“Trees can make a forest / Trees can make a bow / These are all the harder words you have to know” - Bought A Bride, Brand New
