It’s cumbersome, being a Brand New fan. For a start, there’s the word “fan,” something that seemed more appropriate a decade ago in a do-or-die adolescence, an uncomfortable tag in a cynical half-adulthood. But fandom is what it is—Brand New evolved and persisted while their once-peers rehashed and scratched around for stagnant fanbases. So when they print up T-shirts heavily implying that they'll disband in two years or so, there’s a genuine sense of disappointment. And when the space between Daisy and a much-hyped new album stretches out beyond the seven-year mark, people get weary.Today, Brand New released 3 Demos, Reworked, a 10-inch that you can hear below and order here. On its A-side are three re-recorded, gently re-imagined impressions of tracks from the band’s inadvertently leaked Devil and God demos back in 2006; on the B-side are the three tracks in their original forms, essentially untouched, as they appeared on those torrented rips and on the Leaked Demos 2006 release last year. “Brother’s Song,” Jesse Lacey’s personal narrative on war, gets another look after having its lyrics replaced and its guitar smoothed out on “Sowing Season” B-side “Aloc-Acoc.” “Missing You,” once an odd track with a semi-sinister verse and an expansively melodic chorus, finds a greater balance and a new rash of lyrics. And “1996” sees Lacey doubling down on the Morrisey impression that he laid on first time around.Vincent Accardi’s guitar lifts everything, more focussed and, occasionally, playful than it has been before. It pokes through and interacts with Lacey’s voice and, often, it interacts with its own echoes from a decade back, reanimating and twisting itself around old melodies. He’s not alone, either; Brand New are in quiet conversation with themselves here. Lacey adapts lyrics and offers dispirited shrugs to his former self. On “Brother’s Song,” his mid-Iraq lament that “just a few mother’s sons will never really be enough” becomes a weary sigh: “Just a few mother’s sons / It’s cliche, but it’s never gonna be enough.” The “singing guitar” that he’d tried to sell for parts and glory on “1996” is now a wry, intentionally overwrought “sorrowful heart.”They've now done something with every track from the Leaked Demos, be it a full re-record or a borrowed hook. The only exception is "Good Man," still one of the most unassumingly beautiful tracks of its decade and one that requires no more adjustments or addaptations. As there was on April’s unexpectedly poppy “I Am a Nightmare,” there’s the sense here that Brand New are rounding their careers out, making sure that everything is in place. They’re arranging the flowers at their own funerals.Alex Robert Ross didn't get all emotional listening to this, you got all emotional listening to this, shut up. Follow him on Twitter.
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