Maybe that’s just because it’s so new and hasn’t had a chance to have a mythology constructed around it yet, but Science Fiction seems accessible in a way that listeners who haven’t been heavily invested in this band for two decades can appreciate.Īnd I think part of the reason for that is that Science Fiction is just so damn fun to listen to. It’s an album I could give to just about anyone that likes rock music with no qualifiers. There are a lot of allusions, both sonically and lyrically, to past albums, and you could play “spot the similarities” with each of the songs all day, but I think what’s most refreshing about Science Fiction is that it feels like there’s no barrier for entry. Everything sounds like a refinement or progression of the same playbook that they’ve been working with for almost 18 years now. They really went for broke, cracking the Brand New formula wide open and finessing what makes them work so well together. On a macro level, Science Fiction is a total crowdpleaser. It truly feels like a culmination of what they’ve been working toward their entire career, both musically and emotionally. It’s dense and rewarding and totally overwhelming in the same way their past output is, in that I can imagine myself discovering new things to love about it 10 years down the line.

After listening to it all weekend, I’m confident that Science Fiction will stand with their best. The fervor around the quick-paced release of their long-awaited fifth album, Science Fiction, is a testament to not only how popular and beloved they’ve remained over the years, but how willing fans are to forgive any frustrations they had with the band because, at the end of the day, Brand New always deliver.

And if this is truly gearing up to be the end of Brand New’s narrative - and they’ve been increasingly hinting that’ll be the case, though who knows with this band - I can’t think of a better way to go out. A couple years ago, I wrote about how being a fan of this band could be a frustrating, punishing exercise - one of delayed release dates and long radio silences and some perceived animosity toward the people tracking their every move - but, in retrospect, the past few years have proven to be pretty swell when all’s said and done. There were times when it felt like this day might never come and other times when it felt like it was right around the corner, but it’s finally actually here.

Let’s just take a second to marvel at the fact that, after eight years, having a new Brand New album out in the world feels like nothing short of a small miracle.

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