Daisy is an often-overlooked album from Brand New as it comes at the tail end of three successful releases. Starting with the pop-punk Your Favorite Weapon, then the emo/alternative rock Deja entendu, and finally the post-hardcore influenced The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (which many view as their magnum opus).
Then we arrive at Daisy. A sometimes chaotic and consistently dark album that lacks even a glimmer of light. Both lyrically and musically the album reveals a level of despair that most listeners may yet to have found themselves in. With the post-hardcore and noise rock influences turned up higher than ever before, the abrasiveness of this album far exceeds its predecessors. When you add all of this together, many fans just did not "get" this album. It was not bad per se, but something was off.
I am guilty of having these thoughts myself, and after my first listen I did not return to the album for a few years. Eventually I wanted to hear fresh Brand New material, but with the outlook of a new album being poor, the best I could do was revisit Daisy. When I did, it clicked immediately.
The album starts off with a bang as 'Vices' is a rough and unforgiving song with its screaming vocals and grungy guitars, and gives listeners a sign of things to come. By track three, 'At the Bottom', the dark and introspective nature of this album should be clear. Lyrics like "I stole bricks from the dam almost everyday / Now I'm drowning in the flood I've made / Explain myself to me on the other side / I'm gonna want some answers when I die" being evidence of this.
The chaos continues as if this album was recorded amidst a mental breakdown. The high energy screams in 'Gasoline' wreak of desperation and a longing to better oneself, and is then followed up by 'You Stole', a solemn song that tells us how such changes are easier said than done. Fast forward to the title track 'Daisy', and you can hear a complete loss of any sense of purpose.
To wrap the record up singer Jesse Lacey tells listeners how he has completely given up on life, while singing over the gloomy soundscapes of 'Noro'. Lyrics such as "How am I ever going to know peace? / How will I ever see the lights through the trees?" in the verse, and a chorus of "I'm on my way out / Well, I've tried, God knows that I've tried" are some of the hardest hitting lines on the album.
Daisy reminds listeners how hard it is to truly change for good and the depths of darkness that can occupy our minds. This was a result of Jesse and Vinnie Accardi (lead guitarist, other main writer) opening themselves up completely to the world. Jesse even said that writing this album was akin to therapy when he stated that "Daisy was just the venting of anxiety, of letting go and doing the right thing for us personally and as a band. It’s a very hard way to do something but it is the best way. There’s a lot of pent up emotion that goes into owning up to who you are, what you are doing and the choices you are making so Daisy was us rejoicing in that."
In all, Daisy is a release that often flies under the radar, but that should not be the case. The lyrics, musicianship, and production interlock perfectly on this album to make it an exciting and emotional journey, and it is arguably Brand New's best.
Favourite tracks: At the Bottom, Sink, Bought a Bride, Daisy, Noro
Genres: #PostHardcore, #IndieRock, #Emo, #AlternativeRock, #ArtRock, #NoiseRock
Release Date: September 22, 2009