Brand New - The Devil and God Are Raging Inside MeFor my first Xanga album review, I decided to go for what could possibly be the most difficult album to criticize in my CD collection. As my most anticipated album for over two years, I have now had two weeks to spend listening to Brand New's "The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me." The ironic part is the title itself reflects the difficulty I've had figuring out exactly how I feel about the album."Sowing Season" starts out TDAGARIM with singer Jesse Lacey's eerie lamenting: "Was losing all my friends, was losing them to drinking and to driving, was losing all my friends, but I got them back." It's tough to judge whether Lacey was referring to his actual friends or fanbase when he wrote those words to the album's first song (as well as, surprisingly, its first single), but with the album's more experimental, less pop-sensible style, the latter may be more representitive.The few tracks that follow the opener are what truly make the album. "Millstone" implements drums, guitar, and vocals beautifully, while "Jesus" contains incredibly memorable guitar parts, setting the stage for Lacey to ever-so-slightfully sing lines like "Well Jesus Christ, I'm not scared to die, I'm a little bit scared of what comes after, Do I get the gold chariot?, Do I float through the ceiling?" and "Do you believe you're missing out, that everything good is happening somewhere else? But with nobody in your bed, the night's hard to get through."The album's highlight, "Limousine", is the one song on the disc that only Brand New could pull off, putting themselves on a pedestal above an ever expanding music scene. As the song slowly snowballs, the listener is taken on an emotional, audial oddyssey. The music abruptly cuts off shortly before midway as Lacey sings, "I died for you one time, but never again", and over the next few minutes uses repetition as an artform with perfection.Following the boringly average "You Won't Know", TDAGARIM's weakest link, "Not the Sun", evokes Lacey's worst lyrical (yet, initially, musically promising) content to date with horribly oversung and overplaced lines, like "be my bait" and "you are not the sun." For anyone familiar with the band's leaked demos from earlier this year, any of the six that were not already redone for the album (Note: #6 and #8 were on the album, while #3 was used as a b-side on the "Sowing Season" single) could've taken this song's spot in their demo form and still made for a better track. Where "Deja Entendu's" mixing set it apart, sandwiching this between "Welcome to Bangkok" and "Untitled" (both instrumental / interludal in style) seems like an unforgiveable (and disappointing) copout. Fortunately, the incredible "Luca" is in between there, as well, saving the casual listener from changing the disc and / or their mind that Brand New has lost its place. Closing out the album, "The Archer's Bows Have Broken" provides more lyric genius (albeit cliched instrument backing) and "Handcuffs" uses its melody and orchestraic quality to swoon our stereos to sleep.After waiting years for TDAGARIM (I consider "Deja Entendu" to be my favorite album) and spending months dissecting nine leaked demos, it's easy to say my expectations were equally unattainable and off the charts. Journalism and criticism is supposed to be unbias, supposed to be "honest and unmerciful", supposed to include what you see as facts and truths. For the first time in my life, however, I'm consciously forced against my will to uphold this. Brand New's third album is as much a solid effort as it is a logical one. The unfortunate struggle of this, however, is TDAGARIM contains nothing as memorable as "Sic Transit Gloria (Glory Fades)", nothing as powerful as "The Quiet Things That No One Knows", nothing as catchy as "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad", nothing as epic as "Good to Know If I Want Attention All I Have to Do is Die", and nothing as satisfying as "Soco Ameretto Lime" or "Play Crack the Sky". While "Handcuffs'" violins play in amazing unison with "I'd arrest you if I had handcuffs, I'd arrest you if I had the time," the song only reminds me that I may never hear lyrics as captivatingly closing as "A funeral keeps both of us apart, you know that you are not alone, need you like water in my lungs, this is end.""The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me" is one of the best albums I've heard this year, but the potential and promise of what could've been (as well as the album's questionable tracks / demo selections) keep it from being the classic and defining work "Deja Entendu" is. In a music scene that's becoming as mass produced as it is greedy, Brand New's distinct style and lyrical content succeeded in what it seemed to want to do in pushing the bounds of the game it's in, but not necessarily what it should've done in taking the music to a whole new playing field as they did previously. In the end, though, the truth of the matter is really simple: Brand New's a safe bet, and their shortcomings are forgivable... the problem is that what may have been the biggest band in the world may be one that as time goes, the world will forget.Overall Rating: 8.5/10- Jeff