Although broadly related to the US Emo brigade, BRAND NEW seem to be carving out a sizeable niche for themselves via that old-fashioned method of continual touring. Since last summer thay have buzzed around the States pretty much continually, supporting the likes of Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory and Good Charlotte and undertaking a lengthy tour as headliners.
So you can't knock their workload, or the fact that their recent (and largely pretty decent) album "Deja Entendu" has shifted upwards of 250,000 Stateside. However, their choice of singles seems a little suspect. Last single "The Quiet Things That No One Ever knows" was rather generic and not one of the album's better tracks and now, with the album's follow-up single they're in contrary decision mode again.
Not that "Sic Transit Gloria...Glory Fades" is crap, it's just a bloody perverse choice for a single. Obscure title for starters, while the song itself is driven on by a burpy bassline and big, expectant drumming, with frontman Jesse Lacey doing a weird, whispered call'n'response thing with his vocal, though - as a concession - it does get undeniably mosh-friendly at the chorus. Go figure, I suppose.
Besides, this isn't a bad value for money job as you also get two further intriguing tracks. There's an effective acoustic take of "The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows", which - initially at least - curiously reminds this writer of Elliott Smith, though maybe that's just my mood. Whatever, there's something strangely appealing about Lacey's delivery and the way he strains to get that odd, wordy lyric out in time.
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Rounding off, meanwhile, is The Moleman remix of "Soco Amaretto Lime", which to these ears would have made a rather better single in itself. Lacey's memorable reminiscence of what he hoped would be an eternal youth ("I'm gonna stay 18 forever...we'll never miss a party 'cos we'll keep them going constantly"), it's strange, but tuneful and quite gripping in this form and while breakbeats do enter the equation towards the end, this remodelling sounds natural rather than forced, as is usually the case with this sort of thing and it all works surprisingly splendidly.
Mixed bag, then, but one which requires continued rummaging.
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