Brand New were always a guilty pleasure of mine. Yes, they were a shitty pop-punk band, but they wrote shitty pop-punk songs about Morrissey, dammit. Their hearts were in the right place. All that guilt dissapated in 2006 with the release of The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me, a veritable quantum leap beyond anything the band had even hinted at being capable of. Confident and competent, Brand New grew up and broke from the shackles of their genre.

That is not what this review is about.

Prior to the release of that breakthrough record, nine other Brand New tracks were leaked online. All of them untitled, they turned out to be rough demos from Fight Off Your Demons, the original title of The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. Ranging from unpolished gems to embryos of now-familiar album tracks, those nine songs proved fascinating as a glimpse into the band’s songwriting process.

The opening song is a sparse affair, consisting merely of Jesse Lacey’s vocals and a lone acoustic guitar that nevertheless shows off his newfound maturity as a songwriter. The second track is the one that surprised me though. It actually sounds like a Morrissey song, especially the lyrics – “if there’s any justice in heaven, then god won’t let me in”, for example – and even boasts a guitar solo that, though not quite comparable to Johnny Marr at his best, is awesome in its own right.

Brand New – untitled 02

Elsewhere, on tracks four and five, the listener is treated to some lovely uncompressed drums, a true rarity these days and something that could never happen on an official release. Number five is especially notable for the terrific interplay between the drums and electric guitar in a thundering instrumental bridge that brings to mind Explosions in the Sky or Mogwai in their brasher moments.

Track six is notable in that it is an early version of what would become Luca. The pace is slower, and the lyrics rougher and more awkward, although the chorus remained unchanged in the final version. Additionally, it features a dark instrumental coda similar in mood to Welcome to Bangkok that, while interesting in and of itself, doesn’t really fit the song. Good as it is, the band made the right choice in cutting it from the final version.

Brand New – untitled 06

Another song that ended up being heavily reworked for The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me is track number eight, an unfortunately poorly recorded acoustic demo of Sowing Season. Listening to it, one can easily imagine it being fleshed out with more instruments and studio magic, which incidentally is exactly what happened.

As simply a look into the creative process, these songs are of course valuable. [In fact, the only one I actually dislike is number three, which just sounded too weepy and Bright Eyes-esque for my taste.] Although imperfect by definition, these demos are more than capable of standing on their own as proof that good songs shine through no matter what form they take. There is something magical about experiencing music in its most raw – and honest – form.

www.fightoffyourdemons.com

www.myspace.com\brandnew