Brand New Day by The Watchmen

Brand New Day, the Watchmen's third album, came out on MCA in March 1996 with the Canadian band trying on a new wardrobe. Coming off In the Trees, their biggest seller, they walked into the studio with less worked out than usual and let the sessions shape the songs, piling on a whole orchestra pit of extras: violin, viola and cello, plus harp, piano and trumpet. The result is lusher and more restless than anything they'd made before, and "Incarnate" carried it to a modest hit.

The catch was the stage. Most of these songs were built in the studio rather than for a crowd, a tough spot for a band whose name was made on the road. Three videos got MuchMusic airplay, yet it became the only Watchmen studio album that failed to go at least gold in Canada. It did land a Juno nomination for rock album in 1997, which went instead to MCA labelmates the Tragically Hip.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.