Album Rating: 3.5
You can attribute historical rating trends to whatever phenomena you want, my point is that "remove massive arbitrary subset of data and the overall valuation changes" is an exercise that makes almost no sense in any context. Remove all reviews and ratings from THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT prior to 2008 and see what happens. It was only acclaimed because of its genius marketing campaign and the paradigm it created in found-footage films. Obscure those facts and it is hardly different than the large handful of clones it spawned.
If the comment was merely an observation of the album's high rating subsisting on Sputnik specifically, then... okay. I guess that's not wrong. It's not inclusive of much else, however - on the contrary, for example, the album's average score has actually trended upward on RYM since its release.
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
easy counter there is that the average rym user's age has trended downward over the same period (not sure what the data would be for sput - the avg community age has definitely gone up, but it's impossible to say how it's gone for the lurkerbase)
this album having a long-passed golden age within sput discourse specifically is not really up for debate though, and it is not arbitrary to review its data in that context
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
I agree with your second paragraph, I hadn't considered the original comment in the context of Sputnik, specifically, mostly because I only read the most recent page of comments and didn't bother to go back for any additional context, as one does.
The first paragraph, though, doesn't that point sort of contradict the point being made? I thought the general sentiment was that the only people still fawning over Brand New albums in 2024 are washed up thirty(almostforty) somethings that were in their tender, impressionable college years upon original release? And that younger gens with no nostalgic tether or halcyon memories of Deja or TD&G or whatever are the ones who see the music for what it truly is (relatively unremarkable, overwrought emo rock)? I would assume then that RYM's median user age decreasing over time would therefore also lead to a long term decline in Brand New album ratings.
I know that TD&G has (slowly; very, very slowly) creeped up over the years, I vaguely remember it in the 3.7's, I vaguely remember when it hit 3.80, and now I see that it's at 3.85. I was genuinely surprised, though, to see a similar trend for Deja.
|
| |
Album Rating: 4.0
I'd argue there's no excuse for Daisy not to be a 4.1+ on this website, giving the endless adoration of anything Brand New touches.
This is very easily their 2nd worst album though. Is Brand New's "golden era" over specifically because of cancel culture, though? I feel like they're the band that people on here would argue is too acclaimed to cancel, too big to fail, etc. compared to a more mediocre band like Say Anything, Saves the Day, Taking Back Sunday, etc.
All their albums are steadily rising on RYM though, and I feel that generation of kids is more prone to being cancel-happy.
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
hmm on sput, you would expect (and largely see) the rising average community age to be inversely correlated with *both* the nostalgia and the impressionable conditions demanded by this album
and if rym has proved anything in the last few years with its rosenstock bandwagoning, reappraisals of MCR and BMTH etc. and revival of creatively defunct post rock writing with extra angst (parannoul boom etc), it's that overwrought emo rock (+cousins) doesn't have a sell-by date for kids who weren't there for the glory days
a smaller proportion of active sput users might be collegeposting and high school canteening than on rym (hence why this alb would be more contingent on nostalgia than on impressionable emo-mess listeners here), but ig what you'd take from rym is that the experience of listening to this as an adolescent hasn't changed that much in the last two decades
which is a bit of a depressing thought given some of the lyrics here, but it is what it is
"Is Brand New's "golden era" over specifically because of cancel culture, though"
you could argue that the band all but breaking up renders that question moot to a certain degree (did we actually cancel them, or did they just bow out?), but i think the rate of discussion on p much all BN threads pre- and post-2018/19 speaks for itself, even allowing for a steady decrease in site traffic. am not about to start counting posts to verify this though
|
| |
Album Rating: 4.0
Rosenstock was always huge on this website, so they're just 15 years late to the game, but yeah the MCR and BMTH bandwagoning is so weird. Back in the day if you were on this website and you loved Brand New, you likely hated those bands because Brand New was the "advanced"/"indie rock" version of scene/emo culture.
There'll always be a market for teen angst in the music industry, but teenage RYMers used to deviate from the mass commercially successful bands, now there are so many of them that the median teenager is no different than your generic Hot Topic shopper (do they still have Hot Topics?)
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
yup, i think that's pretty much the read
other thing i'd add is that rym never had to go through the same reckoning (/sustained shrugging off) of how intensely intertwined its self-identification with this band had become pre-allegations. it's a whole lot easier to point to a band you have no attachment to, identify the toxic parts and selectively ignore them in favour of their other sources appeal than it is to recognise that you've fallen headlong for the entire package and still come back to them in good conscience
like, to pull an example from this review:
>We understood the desperation in his voice and the subtle undertones of sexual frustration in ‘Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis.
this is what we in 2024 now call a date rape ballad.
|
| |
Album Rating: 4.0
Yeah that is worded pretty weirdly, and even for the time "subtle undertones" didn't make sense. It's very upfront about being a villain song in the same way as Every Breath You Take, the evilness is the whole point.
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.4
glad my old-ass haphazard comment generated some substantive discourse lmao
I do agree it's interesting that the avgs have raised on RYM, I expected this album especially to have aged terribly
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
Never really LOVED this album but Guernica is straight up one of their best songs. Love Jaws Theme Swimming too
Every time I go on a Brand New kick I always forget that this record has some heaters
|
| |
Album Rating: 5.0
Jaws Theme and Guernica are two that got me heavily into the album. Guernica hit really hard at a time in my life when my grandma was dying from cirrhosis of the liver and there was nothing we could do until she died. She lived across the country from me too so the lyrics hit home.
|
| |
Album Rating: 4.0
Should switch scores with Daisy, tbh
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
Yeah… they just hit you in the right moment and you’re a fan for life. Having no idea what the song was about I jammed it and some other tracks on Deja after my grandfather died in a car accident. Really was not expecting that track to hit me that hard… still does even after all these years
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
the last good thing these guys did. agreed.
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
incorrect
|
| |
now imagine if tdag had play crack the sky instead of handcuffs as closer acoustic numba now that would b a 5
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
eww no no no
|
| |
yh probs
|
| |
Album Rating: 3.5
OK bet
where's the beach
|
| |
Album Rating: 4.0
This is by far my most passed over BN album. Just never care to revisit.
Agreed that Guernica is sick though
|
| |
|
|
