So Brand New Dropped a Mysterious New Song on YouTube Again

Brand New has been insisting that their fifth album is on the way for almost two years now, but aside from releasing a collection of old 2006 demos and the single “Mene” last year, it’s been radio silence on their end. But now it appears big changes loom in the distance for Brand New, starting with “I Am A Nightmare,” the song they just posted on YouTube through their new label Procrastinate! Music Traitors, and if this is the torchbearer for their new material, we could be looking at the best Brand New music yet.

Whereas “Mene” was a raucous, twangy punk tune that sounded like Jesse Lacey was one more annoyance away from setting his neighbors’ house on fire, “I Am A Nightmare” harkens back to the subdued, grim urgency reminiscent of Deja Entendu while blending in the moody atmospherics and wispy guitar lines from The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me. Listening to “I Am A Nightmare”—which you can do below—feels like seeing an old friend return home: they’re older, perhaps a bit wearier, but once you start talking again, it’s like they never left. Now cross your fingers that there’s still more to come.

Brand New is touring North America this summer with Modest Mouse, mewithoutYou, and Greater Pyrenees. Check out the upcoming dates here. You can buy the “I Am A Nightmare” single on vinyl here.