LogFAQs > #961058788

Brand New's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
SpikeSetsFire (18)
Snake5555555555 (22)
HBJDubs (22)
BlueCrystalTear (24)
Blur (26)
Giggsalot (28)
Seanchan (34)
kateee (34)
Raetsel_Lapin (36)
MetalmindStats (36)
CasanovaZelos (38)
Johnbobb (50)

General Album Comments

Seanchan: Did a first listen today. Bizarrely, THIS is one of the few bands we've covered, not nominated by myself, that I've actually listened to a full album from. While I'd heard parts of Your Favorite Weapon, it was Deja Entendu that got quite a bit of play back when I was in college.

The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me was new to me though and I was enjoying it, or at least parts of it. At any rate, it did make me go back and listen to Deja Entendu again for the first time in forever and, yes, that's still pretty good. Though I wasn't enjoying the practically 20 year mental trip back in time it created... There's something about some of the "screamy" vocals in parts of Brand New's albums that feels firmly rooted in that early/mid 2000s culture that's a little offputting.

Giggsalot: this is a super difficult album to listen to for a multitude of reasons, but it really is pretty unimpeachable at what it does

Seanchan: Just did my 2nd "prelim" ranking listen. This is going to be one of those tough to rank albums, I can tell already.

As I've only done the 2 listens, it's hard to truly judge against Deja Entendu, but this one doesn't feel as "fun" to me. It's also an album that makes me feel "lyrically deaf". As in, the words on a lot of the songs are just not reaching my brain with any level of comprehension of overall meaning. But that's probably just a me thing.

Blur: One of the greatest albums of all time. Many days, I think it is the best record ever made. Literally impossible to rank the top 5. You could interchange them in the rankings and I wouldn't remotely care. Sowing Season was my #1 originally for example, and I have no reason to have now put it at 4 except this is a perfect record that is impossible to rank in a topic like this.

Johnbobb: Didn't really care for this album much at all past the first song.

CasanovaZelos: This was pleasant enough, but I found the strength of the album to be the juxtaposition between tracks. There isn't much distance between my placements here.

MetalmindStats (replying to Seanchan): This has also approximated my experience with it so far, for what it's worth.

Seanchan (responding to MetalmindStats): Glad to know I'm not the one one? I felt like I was just missing a layer with this album. When we listened to Taylor Swift it was obviously the focus on the lyrics and storytelling, but it was also easy to follow. Then we've had stuff like Iron Maiden, Spice Girls, or The Knife where it's more about the instrumentation and/or the "vibe", and I don't care (or don't have to care) about the lyrics.

With The Devil and God...I couldn't escape the idea that I was missing something by not understanding the story and the lyrics and the meaning of the songs. For example, I did a tiny bit of research behind Limousine and found out it's based on a true story of a seven year old girl getting killed by a drunk driver. Was the girl someone related to a band member? (Pretty sure that's not the case.) Did the story touch a nerve with a band member because of them having a history with drunk driving? There's also seemingly a lot of religious references in these songs. Why is that?

Unfortunately, I'm usually just looking to enjoy an album with these rankings and not deep dive into the circumstances behind a band's output. And so, for better or worse, I'm mostly left to judge based on surface impressions.

MetalmindStats: Sorry Snake, I feel bad even posting this.

I must admit, I'm relieved more than anything that this album did nothing for me even in isolation. It comes off as a sort of dense, disparate tone poem - too dense and disparate to grasp, as I touched on before. Yet it's somehow united by Brand New's musical sensibility and subject matter seemingly woven from Lacey's neuroses, ego, and, frankly, misdeeds. Obtuse yet emotionally vulnerable, a certain personal touch feels abundant here. It's an approach that clearly has worked for many others over the years, but here and now, I find it moreso impedes some surprisingly engaging compositions. That might be a mere artifact of my mental blinders and musical biases, though. Ultimately, I'm walking away from it feeling dreadfully conflicted, circling around to emptiness. I recognize that there's something here I'm not getting, but not why I should care about what I'm missing, much less enough to ignore its baggage.

Snake5555555555: Don't feel bad, I'm just glad you gave it a chance and to be honest, I think walking away from this album conflicted and even a little empty is a perfectly valid feeling to have from this album. I didn't come away from my first listen totally loving this album, it genuinely took me awhile and close listens to really appreciate it. I relate to many of the songs here, while some lyrics are still shrouded in mystery for me and I enjoy that aspect of the album. It's why it continues to grow on me and I still enjoy every repeated listen. There's a certain darkness & anxiety-inducing fear in this album I've ever rarely felt from any other musical work and that includes warts and all.

ChichiriMuyo: I couldn't get through this album because each time I tried I felt distressingly depressed.

BlueCrystalTear: This is a very hard album to rank because the tracks are - for the most part - pretty equal. There aren't many true standouts because, save for one, I'd give them all between a B+ and A. This was brutal to do with a single listen so I had to go through a few a second time.

Giggsalot: so, uh, yeah. this thing.

this isn't a style of music I typically enjoy, but this is a hell of a record. I agree with Chichiri that it's a profoundly difficult listen, but therein lies its power - it's rare to hear a record paint quite such a harrowing portrait of shame, insecurity and self-loathing as this one (the takes above calling this emotionally opaque are baffling and fascinating to me, i couldn't disagree more). the fact that we now know precisely why lacey was feeling so guilty only adds an extra layer of "challenge" to the listening experience. fortunately (or otherwise, you decide), it's worth the effort because the music is so damn good - the band really steals the best of the LCW-era modest mouse sound, and the added post-hardcore snarl of the guitars really sells the whole thing too. this is immaculately packaged despair, and there's a place in the world for that - just don't expect me to listen to it often

MetalmindStats (responding to Giggsalot); I should clarify - when I called it obtuse, I was not dinging its vulnerability, the way Lacey evidently bared his soul in its creation. I used the word mostly to indicate how personally inaccessible I found it in spite of those characteristics.