Science Fiction

3.9 You know what, it's good to hear a good, recent(ish) rock album that feels fresh and not an obvious immitation of something that came before. But most importantly, not crap. Was slightly confused when this started, my faint memory of Brand New was trying to avoid them in my youth when I couldn't be arsed with Emo. So to see them pop up two decades later with an impressive rock album is interesting. Will have this on rotation I'm sure.

At the time I skipped Brand New as I thought I did not like emo. As I discovered with "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me", oh boy how wrong was I. Science Fiction is their last album and the music is a bit less heavy overall. That's not a band thing and "Lit Me Up", "Can't Get It Out" and "137" are fantastic songs.

I had not heard of this band before. I enjoyed it, may check out some more of their stuff. I really enjoyed reading on their Wikipedia page about the feud with the band Taking Back Sunday. 4 stars.

"The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me" is one of my favorite albums of all time, but the rest of Brand New's catalogue doesn't really do much for me. It's pretty good Emo, more "indie rock" than the former album, but nothing groundbreaking or all that exciting. Maybe needs another listen.

One of those USA bands that never crossed the pond. We have plenty of British bands that didn't cross the other way. Both probably for good reason - culture, taste etc. But often because for all the whimsy they don't have any hits or stand out songs. This is all very nice, and you can imagine a perfectly pleasant intimate gig but not a single song will stick in your mind once you have left.

Something and nothing to write home about on first listen.

Brand New's brand of indie-emo never impressed me and Science Fiction doesn't either. Same Logic/Teeth is good but this lacks either the swagger you want from good indie or the angst you want from good emo, it just sits in the middle in a very boring way. 2.

Favourite songs: Waste, Desert, 137, Lit Me Up, 451, In the Water, Could Never Be Heaven, No Control, Same Logic/Teeth Least favourite songs: none 5/5

Favorite Track: 137

Very cool album!

Science Fiction is the Brand New's final album before their first disbandment. It comes after an eight-year period following the band's previous album, which usually means normal things for a band that continually hinted at disbanding leading up to this release. Despite the delays, Science Fiction landed wonderfully while showcasing the band's inner turmoils with each song's introspection. Makes me think there's a whole legacy underneath an album like this. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: No. Maybe one of the band's earlier albums would be better-suited.

The Devil and God are Raging Inside of Me is good but I really like this one much better. It is darker and more chill/relaxed. Something I really need in my life sometimes. I can listen to the album on repeat with no problem and never get bored or tired of a sound of song. 4/5

oh, more Brand New yeah I enjoyed TDaGaRIM; this was fine, less enjoyable but still alright - 7/10 Jesse Lacey can still go to hell

Decent

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Lit me up, Same logic/teeth, Desert

Don’t think I’ve ever listened to this album before, I was a massive fan of Deja Entendu, so really enjoyed this didn’t realise their later stuff was still a high standard, great album to end the band on, got to be the top of their Genre.

They're almost there. The vocals are in the uncanny valley between clean and interesting

Underrated last album, I pull this out for fall fire pit nights.

This is a real find- very atmospheric and intruiging. A good album to put forward. I need to listen to them more I think for them to gel.

Good stuff

Bien

It's a good alternative record but it's not as if we have too little of those

Better than expected. Kind of a somber 90's vibe

I think I always confused this band with Days of the New. Better than I feared when it popped up.

Couldn’t really engage with this unfortunately

Whiny singing, guitars, a touch of electronic noise, weird samples. Some songs were interesting, some were offputting. Nothing I'd listen to again, but I can see why someone likes it and it is different.

The other Brand New album I got from the user's list ("The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me") really caught me, and it's now one of my favorites. It didn't happen with this one, and they are indeed quite different. It could just be my mood today, but it's a 2-star album. I'll raise it to 3 out of respect for my good memories of having a new great band in my personal favorites list, even if just for a single album.

I thought I liked Brand New but this record had no teeth. I remembered them having teeth. I went back and listened to the other big record and sure enough, there they were. I guess they ran out of gas?

Portentious alt rock, a little overserious for me without making me feel a whole lot of anything. The more acoustic, lighter interludes (in the audio, not the affect sense) helped move it around a bit, but not quite enough.

Overly long meh sounding indie rock. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 3/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Tunes were decent but too consistently slow. Brand New is capable of bangers

Yep it's Brand New alright

Coming about 15 years after I stopped listening to Brand New, I found this album enjoyable. Glad to see they spent the 2010s evolving their sound a bit, even if I far prefer the earlier stuff.

I guess this was fine.

Indie rock, alternative rock, emo, post-hardcore, experimental rock. Ni fu ni fa.

Tough one, both for the LP itself and allegations surrounding the band’s frontman. I enjoyed when each track crescendoed into a biting wall of guitars, the mix perfectly accentuating the well-executed vocals against the layered instrumentals. The journey to get there, however, gets way too repetitive as each song insists on an A-B structure with an extended slower intro. There’s little structural contrast between the tracks, and makes the album drag and feel longer than it should. There’s an incredible album in here, it’s just buried under some editorial decisions that make it feel a bit bloated in its current state. As for the allegations against frontman Jesse Lacey, I did some research and found how he has A) sincerely apologized and B) gone to treatment and put in work to fix himself. That doesn’t excuse his behavior or unfortunate asterisk that now rides on the band’s work, but it does suggest that the outfit doesn’t contain active sex pests who continue to harm people. Always a tough conversation on how to view art marred by the actions of its creators, felt it was necessary to highlight my discomfort here as the allegations had kept me from listening to Brand New before this.

Rather generic sounding, it didn't really add much to the genre or to the list

This had some parts I really liked, and some less so. Interesting listen but didn’t care for some of the messages.

I have already expressed my opinion about Brand New in a review about that other album of theirs that was submitted to this list. So I'm not gonna waste a lot of energy on the account of this one. I will only muster my thoughts as they appear in my head, one after the other... Here's what you can find about the singer and frontman of this band on Wikipedia: "In late 2017, Lacey was accused of sexual misconduct by two women, who alleged the events occurred 15 years prior while they were underage and Lacey was in his early 20s. Lacey apologized publicly for cheating on Brand New's Facebook page and admitted to having a sex addiction in his past, which he had sought treatment for over a decade before the allegations were brought public. He did not acknowledge the alleged age of his accusers in his apology." Not did he address the specific things he has been accused of doing, by the way. Some stuff is pretty disturbing, between depictions of grooming and full-blown SA. And other women have come forward with allegations of misconduct since. Jesse Lacey is not the only prominent artist being accused of such things, sure... Let's just say that other details about his behavior and "antics" throughout his career do not paint a pretty picture of him either and leave it at that. There'a decidedly "toxic" aura around everything that band is involved with. And I'm not even going into the details here, because the stories are not even interesting -- they're just fucking sad and/or ridiculous. Apart from that, Band New had always stated that they would split up for good a year after the release of this "comeback" album (for unrelated reasons). Looks like they didn't hold their word and returned a couple of years later or something, grabbing as many dates as they could, both in the US and in the UK. After learning that, why do I get the feeling that those greedy bastards, desperate to raise their profile by all means, are always so full of shit? I wonder, huh? Now did I mention the fact that I also find Brand New's emo shtick absolutely TERRIBLE on a purely musical level? This music is flat, linear, and terrible undynamic on a harmonic viewpoint. It's just derivative drivel without a shred of originality in it. Anyone who loves this band has shitty taste in my eyes. And given how disrespectful this submission is for victims of SA and other related traumas, I certainly won't mince words about what I think about the music per se. If you think I play it a little too aggro and "performative" in this review, please consider how insensitive the user who submitted this album is first. It would really take some nerve to reverse accusations against me after that... Oh, I can already see fans coming out from miles out and state with a wimpy tone of voice that I don't "get it", because Brand New are still a pivotal and influential act in their elected genre, no matter what it is that Lacey really did. Influential, really? Well, let's check that out with their wiki page, once again... "Artists influenced by Brand New include Manchester Orchestra, mewithoutYou, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Citizen, Oso Oso, Amy Shark, Sorority Noise, You Me at Six, Moose Blood and The Xcerts. Pop singer Halsey cited the band as an inspiration, referring to both *Déjà Entendu* and *The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me* in particular as essential records in her life, and Lacey as "largely responsible for why I write with such detail." Demi Lovato has also expressed her admiration for the band." Most of those names up there are either unknown or not that important on an artistic standpoint, at least in the grand scheme of things. And just like Brand New, most of those acts will be put in the trash bins of music history in the next ten years or so, if they're not already there... Nah, I think the real situation is this: most (now aging) millennials who bought Brand New's albums are just vapid consumers who chased the next trend for superficial reasons. I don't think a lot of truly creative people have been influenced by this band. At least not ones creating stuff that's worthy of your attention, kiddies... Besides, numbers of streams in my streaming service have already informed me that the target audience for *Science Fiction*, Brand New's last album, has already forgotten the latter. This makes this submission even more ridiculous in my eyes. I despise this band anyway. I don't care if they are selling millions of records. They are still pathetic losers in my eyes. And as you have probably already surmised, I also despise their fans today. Skip button, please. 0/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 5/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 0 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 123 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 143 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 318 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

Forgettable