On 21st November 2006 Brand New released ‘The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me’ – an album thought of by many fans as their best album to date. It was a big step up from previous album ‘Deja Entendu’ and made many critics label them (inaccurately, but somewhat understandably) as the ‘new-American-Radiohead’ - in terms of reinventing themselves though maintaining their own identity. In between the releases of these two albums came the ‘accidental’ leak of a bunch of untitled demos. At the time, many Brand New fans believed that the new album would be called ‘Fight off Your Demons’ and also believed that these untitled demos were intended to be that new album and so have cleverly called these demos ‘Fight Off Your Demos’ (no ‘n’).
While, not an official release (although, were it not for its leak it may well have been), the ‘Untitled Demos’ are an important release from Brand New as it is the missing link in the fairly huge step and maturation from ‘Deja…’ to ‘TDAGARIM’. It shows how they managed to get from ‘A’ to ‘B’. It shows the thought process involved in making the album, and shows some of the ideas that they had for the album, that didn’t make the final cut. Indeed, several tracks here bare much resemblance to tracks on ‘TDAGARIM’, while others are completely individual. All tracks on the ‘album’ are titled Untitled # (track number), but some have been given unofficial names by fans, after they were referred to other names by the band while playing them live.
‘Untitled 8 (Yeah)’ is basically the demo version of first ‘single’ ‘Sowing Season (Yeah), as the guitar chords and vocal melodies match it exactly. It is a solo acoustic song, so is sadly void of the short drum rolls, and other instrumentation that made the song sound ‘bigger’ and indeed, better. Most of the lyrics are different to the album version, but there are still some phrases that didn’t change – “Yeah” and “Losing all my friends…” The lyrics have always been a major focus point of Brand New’s music, and here they are not as good as those found on ‘TDAGARIM’ but are still very good indeed. It’s a shame however, that due to the poor recording quality that they are nearly inaudible, and you really have to strain your ears to hear them correctly.
The tumbling guitar melody in ‘Luca’ is present in ‘Untitled 6 (Mamas)’, and the demo very closely resembles the final track, and the second verses of both versions are identical. The drums come in a lot later in the demo version, and because of their late entry have no real chance to have much positive effect on the listener, although they do (wrongly) lead you to believe that the song is to continue and build into something more powerful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t. This is sadly the case for all the songs on the untitled demos. Whereas on ‘TDAGARIM’ most songs started out quiet and a cleverly constructed crescendo later hit you with a wall of noise, the ‘Untitled Demos’ tend to stay at the same dynamic marking and sound monotonous. This makes the demos much harder to listen to as a whole. However, they are only demos; it is unlikely that this is how the band intended for the fans to hear them.
In fact it is very probable that the band never intended to release these demos as an album, at least not without making some adjustments (which they did in the end) as the demos don’t feel like a collective album, they feel more like 9 random tracks placed together for the sake of it. There is no obvious purpose to their ordering or their grouping together, as there was on TDAGARIM. On the final album there were common themes lyrically such as religion, but here there are none and therefore it doesn’t feel like a proper album. After all it isn’t considered one anyway.
Musically, however, there is some sense of belonging to an album as most of the songs are either basic acoustic songs or dynamically mild pop/rock songs. And like on normal albums, there are a few standout tracks, both in terms of quality and standing out because of sounding different. ‘Untitled 7 (Fork And Knife)’ is a stand out track in both of these respects. It is one of the best songs on the album, and sounds very different to any other Brand New song ever recorded. It’s jazzy piano melodies and danceable drum beat is a huge departure from the rest of the demos, and as mentioned in the previous sentence, from any other Brand New song. It also has the best recording quality out of all the songs on the ‘album’ and this is a huge bonus, as you can enjoy the lyrics (which again, are the focal point) with a rare clarity.
A syncopated drum pattern gives a very weird feel to ‘Untitled 5 (Nobody Moves)’. It is also worth mentioning that this is the only song here where major dynamic changes are used. It is because of these factors that the track stands out and is one of the best indicators of what could have been expected from TDAGARIM. The lyrics are some of the best out of all the untitled demos, as not only do they vividly describe a tense hostage situation with great detail, but they are also catchy without being annoying.
Opener ‘Untitled 1 (Good Man)’ is believed to be about Michelle Nolan, sister of John Nolan who used to be in Taking Back Sunday, and is the reason for the tension between the two bands. According to Wikipedia: “At the Kevin Devine/ Jesse Lacey solo show in Richmond, VA on July 31, 2007 Jesse introduced "Untitled 01" as being about his "best friend's sister". A fan in the crowd asked if he was talking about Michelle Nolan, sister of best friend John Nolan, and he ignored the comment.” It is a solo acoustic song in which Jesse sings of childhood memories involving a girl, who later grew up to marry a “good man”. Whoever it was written about it, they were obviously very special to Jesse as he sounds almost close to tears while singing it.
It is probably for the best that these demos were not released as a proper album, as there is nothing common to the tracks, except for a sub-standard recording quality that hinders the demos slightly. It turns out that the demos that made it to TDAGARIM were not necessarily the best songs but ones that would have fitted in more naturally to the album both lyrically and musically. Compared to the album that it preceded, the demos are weak, but are actually very good in their own right. Since these were not released as a proper album and were recorded without the intent of ever being heard, there was little pressure on the band and this allowed them to experiment with different styles, which they didn’t always get right but in most cases did very well. As said before, and as many will undoubtedly point out, the ‘Untitled Demos’ are not a proper album – they are like a half-time report in the recording of one of 2006’s best albums.
