I’ve intentionally waited since Brand New returned. A lot happened during a few hours and days when new music leaked online. Five hundred limited edition vinyl pre-orders for an untitled Brand New album put the music community on its backside. Those lucky enough to make the purchase received a CD in the mail folded in brown paper with a black and white image of the band. Could’ve easily been mistaken for a Godspeed! album or a deranged manifesto with anthrax sealed within. The music was promptly ripped and put online to manifest plagues of theories and discoveries. Science Fiction came to be by the fanatic curiosity of fans and the band’s own admission. Let’s cut the conspiracies though. Brand New intentionally waited for this moment, for years.
This was an organized coup to grasp the attention of the world for a brief moment. They’ve watched others do it over the last few years. Beyoncé in late 2013 ambushed everyone after quietly working her self-titled album for a year. She hit everyone with her best work to date. I can say the same for Brand New. It’s their best work since 2006’s The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. I’m sure same disagree but Daisy might as well not exist to me. Perhaps it’s a sign to retry it again. Then again I’ve said that since it’s release. Some opinions are set in stone, but I wanted to make sure I gave Science Fiction time to solidify rather than ejaculating with first impressions.
Self-revival, wise, reinvention, and “debatably the band’s greatest album” will take life on the internet forever. Science Fiction exists as a great sequel, think Clerks 2, about who Brand New was last decade, influencing alternative rock forever, and who they are now. Rather than just make another record during the height of their financial success they’ve constructed a great album that pays homage to the past but still offers well written and diverse songs that can easily hold you for an hour.
The opening dialog on “Lit Me Up” between a therapist and patient sets the leitmotif for the entire album. The whole experience sounds like therapy sessions mixed in with some reverence of the past. “Can’t Get It Out” takes you back to Deja Entendu. “Waste” and “Could Never Be Heaven” sound like they came from The Devil and God sessions. Many of these songs refer nostalgically to The Devil and God. Obviously that’s a good sonance to possess however I’m critical of emulating an album from over ten years ago, no matter how fantastic it was then and influencial it remains now.
At the same time I have to praise their sentimentality not simply because we’re fortunate to have new music but it’s simply enjoyable. It’s a full canvas, not just a single or two with some filler tracks. This era of musicians focus on building one incredible song rather than a rich experience of pressing play and letting go for a while.
“Out of Mana” counters my critique earlier with the best moments of Science Fiction. It has elements of Deja, Devil and God, and Daisy while presenting a new unheard edge from the band. More rock than reservation. There’s optimism rather than gloom. In this period of my life, and perhaps their’s too, I’m looking for a positive outlook rather than the nihilism of my youth. Most of these bands I came to love in my teens aged appropriately with me. Reminds me of Japandroid’s album this year.
From “In The Water” through spectacular anthem “Batter Up” finishes the record stronger from where it started. Immediately I wouldn’t call it Brand New’s best work; however, I expect it to age just as well as the rest of their catalog. Many bands fail to make respectable music after a long hiatus. I hope Science Fiction bridges us from their last incarnation to the next one.
Disaesthetic 