Brand New – ‘Jesus’ (Interscope) Released 30/04/07

Brand New have seriously grown up.  Forget the pop-punk sensibilities of their debut, Your Favorite Weapon – new single ‘Jesus’ has none of the bubble-light references to girls and teenage love.  Opening with a hauntingly affecting guitar riff and atmospheric background effects, the song continually feels like it’s on the edge of something huge, but just won’t let you fall.  As if that isn’t enough to make your spine tingle, Lacey’s fabulous writing talents build up to a multi-layered vocal climax: “we sleep inside of this machine” before letting you float back to the opening riff.  B side, ‘Millstone’ is similarly mature, but with more power and thrust than ‘Jesus’.  Buy it, just do it, now.