So I’m just going to shoot straight with you right out of the gate: I love this album. I love Craig’s Brother. They self-released this bad boy and deserve all the money and support that you can afford to send their way. Got it? Ok, now to go all the way back to the beginning…

10 years ago I was a sophomore in college (good grief, where did the time go?) when I started dipping my toes into the waters of entertainment coverage/writing. I started out as a street team member for Tooth & Nail Records and as a result, got free CDs in the mail from time to time. Even though this was the heyday of Napster, Limewire, Soulseek and all those other industry-destroying tools of the devil, getting CDs was still a big deal to me, especially when they came from new artists who I’d never had the chance to listen to before. Enter from stage right, Craig’s Brother with their punk rock opus, Lost At Sea. While I had been into punk for a little while at this point, it was mostly of the MxPx variety (i.e., guitar/bass/drums in varies degrees of creativity). Suddenly my world was recalibrated by this punk band that was working in things like a string section, a children’s chorus, all while singing about the brutality of lives lost at war, nationalistic pride gone wrong, the breakdown of a family…it was moving stuff.

And then they were gone. Almost as if the album had never existed, the release of Lost At Sea came and went without any fanfare. Of course at this point in my life, I was just getting schooled on the ways and means of the music industry and record label politics. I naively assumed that since Lost… was such a musically brilliant record that I would automatically see it everywhere and all my friends would soon be talking about it. Sadly that wasn’t the case and my love for Craig’s Brother would only be strung along from time to time, as they would drop a b-side here, an EP there. But for all intents and purposes, the band was kaput. Or at least on a serious hiatus.

Until sometime in 2009 when rumblings of life within CB started making noise. Slowly but surely, they started dropping hints of new music to come. One by one, three new demos were posted on their site over the next year, each one pointing to a revitalized band intent on making their case known once again. Finally in December, CB posted the glorious news that every fan has been waiting 10 years to get: the album was finished! And they wasted no time in letting us hear it. On Christmas day, they made a present of The Insidious Lie to the world by posting on their MySpace page.

Which brings us back to the beginning of this review…what took me so long to write about this? I’ve had the record for about two months, though it was officially released today on iTunes (with a physical release promised in the near future). Every time I’ve tried to start, I felt stymied at how to convey just how stoked I am that we finally have a new Craig’s Brother full length album, while trying not to sound like a screaming Justin Bieber fangirl. Finally I realized there was probably no real way to could write a review and maintain some sort of “objective” standpoint, so I just decided to dive right in. Here we go…

This is a phenomenal record and a breath of fresh air in the musical landscape of 2011. Granted, I know that punk rock has been around for a long time at this point, but these guys do it so well and with such authenticity that you can’t help but get swept up in the passion. They launch into their aural assault with “Freedom,” sounding as if no time has passed between Lost... and Lie. From here, the album touches on familiar themes: the breakdown of relationships (“Mistake Of Caring,” “Closure”), the toll of warfare on humanity (“Thousand Yard Stare”), and constantly looking for approval in all the wrong places (“Party Girl”).

The album closes with the stellar one-two punch of “The Problem Of Evil” and “The Aaronic Blessing (Peace On Earth).” These two songs deal with some big questions of life, namely evil’s existence and the constant conflict that humanity visits upon itself. It’s heady stuff, especially for the punk rock genre, but Craig’s Brother pulls it off. Think of these two tracks as honest, heartfelt responses to the agnostic/atheistic musings of the guys in Bad Religion and you’ll get a sense of where CB is coming from.

Perhaps the only question I have concerns the absence of a song entitled “Crutch” that was present on the pre-release I got from the band. With some salty (but very witty) language dealing with a friend’s alcoholism, I’m assuming that it was left off to make the album as a whole more accessible for their previous Christian/T&N-friendly audience. It’s a shame because it’s a really solid tune, but I believe it’s going to be released eventually as an overseas bonus track.

The bottom line is this: Craig’s Brother is back and they’ve returned with a vengeance. If any labels out there are listening, give these guys a hand and help them push this release. We need more quality music like this, now more than ever in a culture that’s packed to the gills with vapid nonsense. And to Craig’s Brother, I just want to say “Thanks guys.” It’s good to have you back.