So Brand New's new album 'Daisy' leaked onto the internet this past Saturday night (August 29th), almost a month before it's actual release (September 22nd).
It has been well documented how Brand New feel about leaks as in January 2006 nine untitled demos leaked onto the internet before any announcement of a new album or anything. They had been away for two years then out of nowhere these demos found their way on to the internet. Everyone was eager to hear what they had been up to and so these demos proved to be very popular. Jesse Lacey (lead singer of Brand New) is quoted as saying "No one likes to show their creation in mid-process, and those songs weren't done. They were like blueprints. Just the plan, right? It put me in a state where I was under the impression that those songs had been wasted or something—that we had to go and write new things because those had been heard. Now, in retrospect, I want those songs to be on the album and many of them aren't, and I'm probably more to blame for that than anyone. This record already feels incomplete to me without those tracks and probably will forever." That quote is from this interview – an interesting read for any Brand New fan. The album ‘The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me’ was then finally released on November 21, 2006, featuring only two of the leaked demos.
With the 'Daisy' leak at least this time the finished product has leaked, not demos. Therefore this album will not be affected the same way the previous album was as it is already finished. I saw Brand New this past Sunday at the Reading festival and mid set Jesse Lacey said "We're going to play some songs off the new record now, which you've probably heard on the internet as of last night." He did not seem happy about the leak at all and was pretty negative for the whole set and I’d assume this is why.
Brand New are my favourite band, as with a lot of people, I find that Brand New are not a band that you can just casually like, you either really really like them or you don’t like them at all. A lot of people have been waiting for this album for so long and when I heard that it had been leaked I just had to download it because I wanted to hear it so much; I'd assume a lot of other people did the same. I felt bad that I was downloading it but when everyone else is downloading it, I’d thought just be missing out if I had waited for the album to be officially released and then bought it. Nevertheless I will still buy the album when it is released just because Brand New are my favourite band and I already love the album. It would be very naïve to think that others will do the same, but because of the type of band Brand New are I think a lot of people will still buy the album. The leak may also attract new fans who may buy what they hear if they like it.
At the end of the day ‘Daisy’ has leaked and there’s nothing Brand New or anyone can do about it. Also it really is a truly incredible album. There was always going to be people that would just download the album anyway and people will still buy the album, the leak just means that they’ve been able to listen to the album a little bit before they were meant to.
Review of 'Daisy' will be up soon!
2 comments:
An insightful post paul! I think the question it raises is, can any band or record lable really expect to be able to just "sit on" an album of recorded material for months in a digital age, where distribution takes just moments!?
It all comes down to morals.
Any genuine and true fan will be purchasing the album to support Brand New.
It's a priviledge to have heard the album early. We should honour Brand New & still pay the money.
If you don't, you don't deserve to have it in the first place.
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