Part of why Daisy sounds so different, in my opinion, is because this album experienced a steep incline in participation from the other members of the bands, Vinnie in particular. Not to say that they didn’t create all the albums together, but for the first time Vinnie played a huge part in writing the lyrics for the album. Previously, he’d done lyrics for the final song on The Devil and God, “Handcuffs”. He’d also written guitar parts before, obviously. But on Daisy, his lyrical talents began to shine.
“Handcuffs” is an incredible song, a haunting end to an upsetting album. And in Daisy we begin to see just what Accardi can really do with his lyrics. Jesse, usually in the position of songwriting, hadn’t been making a conscious decision to let Accardi wrote more lyrics, it just sort of happened.
“Everyone has always had the opportunity to write anything that anyone wants in the band, it’s just when we started this record Vinnie came with so much already. It had nothing to do with me; it had everything to do with Vin. He just came with everything completed already and it was so good we were all really excited as a band to follow his lead.” - Jesse Lacey
So when it came time to record he had tons of material to work with, lyrics and guitar pieces, and completely finished songs. For the first time, Vinnie’s new lyrics made up more than half of Daisy. And Jesse filled in some gaps, creating an incredible collaboration. Because of Vinnie, we have bone-chilling songs that hanker back to when he wrote the music for ”Welcome to Bangkok”, like “Be Gone”, with incomprehensible lyrics and unsettling banjo to accompany it. In the songs where you can actually understand the lyrics, it’s clear to see that Accardi’s writing gives the album a very cryptic and mysterious feeling. As opposed to the other Brand New albums, Daisy forgoes the honest lyrics that the band is typically known for. And much of their change can be attributed to Accardi’s lyrics.
Songs like “In a Jar” and “Daisy” are odd pieces of music. I already spoke in length about “Daisy” and the preacher recording at the beginning of the song, but the lyrics that follow that announcement, “Just as I am,” are as honest as they can be confusing. Vinnie uses metaphors that describes how the speaker feels about themself.
I’m a mountain that has been moved.
I’m a fugitive that has no legs to run.
I’m a preacher with no pulpit,
Spewing a sermon that goes on and on.
The lyrics paint a contradictory picture of the speaker. A mountain that is moved is hardly a mountain, and preaching with no one to listen hardly gains anyone that wants to follow you. It gives us a similar theme that Lacey has been known to write about in the past, the idea that sometimes at your cores there is something wrong with you that can be difficult to fix. Or even, as the lyrics imply with the leg metaphor, impossible to recover from. You can’t regrow legs, and you can’t always fix the way you are born, or what you change into.
However, I think Accardi’s strongest work on the album is showcased in “Noro”. If you have never heard this song, I highly recommend it. It’s a startling journey, using imagery of people lost in a forest, people doomed to an eternity in Hell, religious symbols, all cornerstones of Brand New.
How are we ever gonna know peace?
How will I ever see a light through the trees?
I wanna burn down everything we’ve begun.
I wanna kill and eat my young.
These lyrics are very graphic, they show the way that sometimes when you’re mentally ill, you just have to self-sabotage because it’s all you know. And having some control over the situation gives you the illusion that things will be okay. You can control destroying something you’ve created. The idea that the end is something far away and unimaginable at this point, so far gone that it seems impossible to achieve. This idea is explored in other Brand New lyrics, but the thing I love about Vinnie’s writing is that it fits so seamlessly with Jesse’s that it’s thematically perfect. They’re like a match made in heaven for writing about being mentally ill.
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