It comes in a split second at the 4:22 mark. With one savvy musical shift, Brand New capture the spark that has ignited their whole catalog since they emerged a decade and a half ago as global ambassadors for Long Island, N.Y.’s melodic-hardcore sound. “Same Logic/Teeth” moves—dramatically, ecstatically—from bricks to candy, from scathing post-hardcore thrash to immaculate pop-punk harmonies, all in the blink of a darkly-lined eye.

With this one turn, we are reminded that Brand New—despite their latter-day shift from emo confessionals to blistering Jesus Lizard worship; despite their lifelong dedication to burying their past (“Brand New Wants to Die Just as Much As You Want Them Dead,” read an early-2000s T-shirt of theirs)—remain four quiet guys from the South shore who once wrote the syrupy made-for-away-messages line “If you were a telephone, you’d still be off the hook.” No matter how ugly their music aspires to be, it always goes down easy: Brand New make brutalist bubblegum. That’s how this cult band from the suburbs of New York City went from being a calling card among mall-punks to stuff the popular kids listened to, and it’s why Brand New are slated to claim an unusually high spot on the Billboard 200 for their fifth album, Science Fiction, their first in eight years.

“God dammit, you look so lovely/But you sound, sound, sound so ugly,” goes the guttural side of this anthem’s chorus, before floating away on the dulcet interjection, “Boy, we gave you every opportunity.” It sounds like a self-reflexive line Brand New must have heard many times since 2009’s Daisy. On “Same Logic/Teeth,” among pitch-shifted vocals and brooding riffs, frontman Jesse Lacey recounts past lives and places; he’s trying to help himself, but knows he can’t go it alone. If Brand New do indeed bow out next year, as they’ve suggested numerous times, then they’ll “stay 18 forever”—a neat bookend to their unusual career. For now, this Science Fiction highlight honors their history with one of the most ambitious songs they’ve yet done.