Brand New: Deja Entendu : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

"I wrote more postcards than hooks," sings Jesse Lacey, frontman for Long Island emo quartet Brand New, on the group's second album. The guy must have written a shitload of postcards. Deja Entendu has more than its share of irresistible singalongs, but Brand New are more poetic and musically adventurous than their emo peers: Bass lines veer toward funky rather than brute; layered guitar parts add a nearly psychedelic effect; and Lacey's lyrics are both self-conscious and poetic. ("My tongue's the only muscle on my body that works harder than my heart," goes one line.) Like Bright Eyes, Brand New understand that whispering and screaming aren't the only ways to convey emotion, and that there's more than one emotion worth conveying.

JENNY ELISCU
(RS 926, July 10, 2003)