from Slate:
Brand New Eyes is the group's best record yet, and one of 2009's most exhilarating releases. That sense of exhilaration has less to do with the shock of the new than a reassuring, masterfully executed blast of the familiar.
The record was produced by Rob Cavallo, who has helmed gloriously grandiose albums by Green Day and My Chemical Romance, and after some initial thrashing about in dark, cramped spaces ("Careful," "Ignorance"), Brand New Eyes breaks into a series of stadium-size vistas, full of cathartic rushes and sudden, dramatic plummets. "Feeling Sorry" and the torrentially pining "All I Wanted" are exemplary throwbacks to the punk-flecked pop of Blink-182 and Avril Lavigne (with one major difference: Those artists often sang in stylized whines whereas Williams' intonation is strong and firm-footed).
In her lyrics, Williams is a throwback, too, out of step with her mostly male peers on the contemporary emo-punk circuit, who fill lyrics with wordy, hard-to-parse riddles; shrieking, frantic confessions; and hand-wringing meta-commentary.
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