Brand NewTitle: The Devil and God are Raging Inside MeLabel: Interscope, Tiny EvilGenre: Indie RockReleased: November 21, 2006Rating: * * *
Jesse Lacey, front man for Brand New, has a serious problem. See, he can’t decide what’s more pathetic, his life or the world around him. Well, he examines the seemingly unending depths of both on his band’s new album, The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me.
Twelve world-weary tracks full of heartbreak and philosophizing on death and the afterlife courtesy of Mr. Lacey. While it tickles the listener’s ears, sometimes it threatens to drown the same listener under the denseness of the subject matter. Listeners sometimes feels as if they are reading a piece of depressing literature instead of listening to a CD, and if that sounds like fun to you, have at it. But since most of us don’t see that as an ideal way to spend 55 minutes, therein lies the problem with The Devil and God.
The accessibility that Brand New’s first two albums so charmingly possessed is somewhat lacking. “Sowing Season,” the album’s first single, starts slow then builds with a simple, yet rousing, chorus of “Yeah!” before ending with the eternally bitter Lacey screaming, “I’m not your friend/ I’m not your lover/ I’m not your family.”
“Millstone” starts off with Lacey crying again, “I used to be such a burning example/ I used to be so original,” while “Jesus Christ,” perhaps the album’s best in terms of lyrics and simple orchestration, features vivid descriptions of both death and heaven. “Degausser,” “Limousine(MS rebridge)” and “You Won’t Know” are next — all epic, drawn out affairs that build and break then end with whimpers.
The instrumental “Welcome to Bangkok” and “Untitled” are boring at best and “Luca” starts off promising with a Zeppelin-esque acoustic guitar progression but quickly becomes tedious before jolting the listener back to reality with a random shriek by Lacey and guitar jam for the last minute of the song.
The upbeat “Not the Sun” and “The Archers Bows Have Broken” both provide a breath of fresh air but don’t seem to fit in, auditorily, with the somber mood of the rest of the album. For being such a heavy piece of artwork, in terms of subject matter and overall aura surrounding the album, one would think that Brand New would notice something this obvious. Musically, the band has matured vastly since the three-chord punk on their first album, Your Favourite Weapon, implementing strings on the closer “Handcuffs” and on “Luca.”
Lyrically, Lacey consistently shows he is very well read and has a gift for poetry, depressing though it may be.
Brand New’s The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me is not your average rock album. You can’t pop it in your CD player for just a quick listen and you and your friends won’t be jamming out to it. It is a dense album — one that demands you to sit down for an hour and listen to what Lacey and his band has to say. But with overly sappy lyrics and a disjointed feel for part of the record, one can’t help and wonder if the hour is worth it.