Media Review

Brand New

Your Favorite Weapon (CD)

Triple Crown
website | mySpace | pureVolume

Overall Rating:

9.0

Music Quality: 9.0

Production: 7.0

Originality: 9.5

A friend told me to check this band out and now I'm really, really, really glad he told me about them. Brand New has some of the most unique sounds I've heard in a long time. In a nutshell (and a small one, at that), they fulfill what could be called a high energy group combining elements of hardcore, pop punk, and rock with incredibly "different" vocals and super-dark lyrics. Haha, well, I guess.

The CD starts out with a super-dark sound, and I was stunned to hear the emphasis the band puts on backing vocals. You can distinctly tell the two vocal styles apart, and they have a yelling-singing voice sound. Very East Coast. The guitars are sooo great. They are fast, then slow, and while playing what sounds like an array of vicious progressions at once. ALL OF THE SONGS SOUND DIFFERENT! I dug every single track on the CD. Every Single One. Everyone seems to dig "Seventy Times 7," with its dropout with some of the dark lyrics I referred to earlier: "is that what you call a getaway, tell me what you got away with, i've seen more spine in a jellyfish, seen more guts in an eleven year old kid, so have another drink and drive yourself home, i hope there's ice on all the roads, and you can think of me when you forget your seatbelt and again when your head goes through the windshield..." I was really suprised when I heard this. Once I started paying attention I was glad to hear the band had more similar lyrics (glad, because not all the songs fall into the typical lyrical notion of today's songwriter). I am seriously not going to go on, this CD blew me away, and I strongly recommend you get it. It appeals to any fan of any genre of music. I wouldn't hesitate (much) to call this the best CD of 2001..seriously.

reviewed by Andrew Martin