Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
Record Label: Interscope
Release Date: November 6, 2006
Following their 2003 sophomore attempt Deja Entendu, Brand New finally released their well anticipated third album, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, at the end of 2006. Fans were expecting something remarkable after the success of the last album, but were in for a surprise.
The darkness, questioning, and mysteriousness appearing in the new albumhad a much different approach than its predecessor Deja Entendu, which was adored by modern rock, containing meaningful lyrics, well played music, and a very fitting flow.
The band had a rough three years in between albums, which is illustrated by the fact that the latest album was dedicated to fifteen people who they knew that died during the recording of the album. This is probably what set off the often dark and self questioning side of the album.
Less than a year before the album was finally released, nine untitled demos were accidentally leaked onto the internet, giving the album a sense of being incomplete at times. “This record already feels incomplete to me without those tracks and probably will forever,” said Brand New’s front man, Jesse Lacey, who sings and writes generally all of the lyrics for the band, about the leaking of the songs.
Despite the dark and incomplete feel, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me somehow managed to still become a simply beautiful album, which is definitely expected from Brand New.
The album starts off with the track “Sowing Seasons (Yeah).” The track immediately illustrates differences from this album to the band’s previous two. It starts with a slow approach, following a much more aggressive vocal performance by Jesse in the chorus, which seems to be a common theme throughout many of the tracks on the album. The intensity from Jesse’s voice in the chorus isn’t from a notable scream by many bands in the scene today, but through a melodic yell.
Although Brand New is far from being a Christian band and do not express Christianity in any of their work, the album’s single entitled “Jesus Christ” comes in as the third track, and also as one of the slowest tracks. I believe this song sends the overall message of the self-questioning feel on the album. “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?” This gives listeners the idea of Jesse questioning about life after death and being afraid of what will come.
The next notable track on the album is track five, “Limousine.” It is based on a story that the band watched on Oprah one day about how a couple was driving home in a limo right after their wedding and were demolished by a drunk driver. The crash killed the limo driver and decapitated the couple’s seven-year-old daughter Katie who is mentioned a few times on the album. The track starts off as one of the darker on the album, as the lyrics are coming from the perspective of the mother that night: “I'll never have to buy adjacent plots of earth./We'll never have to rot together underneath dirt. I'll never have to lose my baby in the crowd./I should be laughing right now.” This track is by far one of the most moving ever written by Brand New in my opinion, and is a great dedication to Katie Flynn.
The next track “You Won’t Know” is my personal favorite on The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. It begins with a haunting strings piece that repeats throughout the song and the lyrics yet again are nothing new for the album, staying in the same questioning theme. However, as the second verse comes in, that same intensity shown on the album is shown with Jesse’s aggression and the spine tingling guitar performance taken over by lead guitarist Vincent “Vin” Accardi.
Another new aspect was thrown in by Brand New on the album. The band included two instrumental songs, one titled “Welcome to Bangkok” and the other which is untitled. Both are decent songs, but “Welcome to Bangkok” takes the instrumental crown with its slow beginning followed by very powerful instrumentation by Vin on the guitar and by drummer Brian Lane, which has been the most common similarities between almost every song on the The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me.
I also feel that I must include the second to last song on the album, “Archers.” After listening to the rest of the entire album, Brand New fans from over the years finally receive a classic, and very catchy, Brand New-esque song, which tops off the album perfectly before its final song “Handcuffs.”
Overall, The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me is a very personal album to me. The progression on the album did not to cease to amaze me as I was very impressed with it. It’s amazing how a band can present themselves with so many differences in each album they release, and that growth is hard to show in band’s following albums, but Brand New have done it. Although it is definitely a big step from Brand New’s previous work, true fans of the band will be able to grow into it.
Every track on the album has at least one incredible ingredient to it which molds out the entire album to be something truly extraordinary, as I am expecting the release in 2009 to also be.
I'm sure it's a decent review, but I only scanned the thing and saw quite a few editing fuckups. Including the misspelling of the title! What's going on here?
I'm sure it's a decent review, but I only scanned the thing and saw quite a few editing fuckups. Including the misspelling of the title! What's going on here?
Since the odd letter mix up here and there wasnt able to completely derail my ability to read the review the best thing i can say about your review is that ive had this album on my ipod for quite a bit and never gave it a full listen but after readin you review i fancy sticking it on about now. Nice job.
Since the odd letter mix up here and there wasnt able to completely derail my ability to read the review
That's not what I said. I scanned the review because I've owned the album forever and my opinion of it is solidified. My only comment was how I saw so many screw ups (which everyone makes) just by scanning it and am not sure how they were not caught in editing. Yay reading comprehension.
I'm also a bit confused how this is the only review of this album on here? Surely there was one when it came out?
fair enough like. just thought it looked like the reviewer took a lot of time on writing it so wanted to squeeze a few positives in there. listened to it all the way through now and i have to say i really enjoyed it
fair enough like. just thought it looked like the reviewer took a lot of time on writing it so wanted to squeeze a few positives in there. listened to it all the way through now and i have to say i really enjoyed it
No problem man, I just didn't want to be misunderstood. Glad to hear you liked it, it really is a good album.
I'm sure it's a decent review, but I only scanned the thing and saw quite a few editing fuckups. Including the misspelling of the title! What's going on here?
Out of curiosity, are the "fuckups" you are referring to when the album title mashes up with the next word after it? Because when I originally made the review I put the album abbreviation, which I wasn't supposed to do, so I guess an editor put the actual title and forgot to put a space there.
I just fixed it though because I haven't been online all day, and I also fixed the misspelling of the title. My bad guys!
Out of curiosity, are the "fuckups" you are referring to when the album title mashes up with the next word after it? Because when I originally made the review I put the album abbreviation, which I wasn't supposed to do, so I guess an editor put the actual title and forgot to put a space there.
I just fixed it though because I haven't been online all day, and I also fixed the misspelling of the title. My bad guys!
That seems to be what the problem was after scanning through it again. Thankfully we can now edit our own reviews! For what it's worth, the album name still needs to be italicized after "Overall,". I don't remember if there were any others I'm missing. Nice review.
That seems to be what the problem was after scanning through it again. Thankfully we can now edit our own reviews! For what it's worth, the album name still needs to be italicized after "Overall,". I don't remember if there were any others I'm missing. Nice review.
Unfortunately I can't edit the other title of it even further up the page, but it will have to do I guess.
First sentence, second paragraph: "darkness" isn't an adjective.
If you're going to review an epic album (to the receiving community), at least show some authorship. This is a generic review.
I agree it seems a bit generic at times, and this is most likely due to the fact that I originally only intended to write this as a review for my journalism class, and afterward basically decided to throw it on AP.
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the best thing i can say about your review is that ive had this album on my ipod for quite a bit and never gave it a full listen but after readin you review i fancy sticking it on about now. Nice job.
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