New Day Dawn is rock-pop outfit fronted by singer/songwriter/musician Dawn Botti. The lineup includes Botti (vocals, guitar, and keyboards), Gary Szczecino (drums), Patrick J. Angeloni (guitar) and Rob Choe (bass). 
The Company We Keep is an independent release on the band’s own Botti Parts Records.

 For a debut this is a strong showing. Ms. Botti is a solid leader by providing multi instrumentation and writing most of the songs.  The albums kicks into high gear immediately with “Misunderstood”, a hook filled track that has hit single written all over it. Botti’s voice is very infectious yet powerful enough to hold the line on their rockin’ tracks.  Similarly “Follow” features power chords and clear and understandable vocals. The prevailing factor is that the impact of every track ends up having more juice because of the pinpoint singing style of the band’s leader. Nothing is wasted here either; every instrument is in place to push Dawn’s voice out front with conviction. There are nine main tracks then a bonus track reworking of “Misunderstood” from 1991. Dawn befriended famed remixer Alan Freidman and he took the song and created the bonus track you now hear on this CD. It has you comparing and contrasting because it is the same song yet it is more of poppy dance electronic version which is miles away from what the group sounds like today so you need to take it for what it is, a standalone track and nothing else.   “Over You” is a polished rock ballad that you would hear on any rock radio station in the 80’s, a stand up cut that shows a different side of the band and it highlights their capabilities to switch from all out rockers to more softer sentimental subjects without losing their overall rock stamp. Following that change of gears they continue in that vein except with a little more alternative/funky slant on “We Are.” This showed me again how diverse they can be.”Paralyzed” is great song that offers some grungy dirty guitar licks when it starts off then around the middle of the song switches over to some nice acoustic picking then gradually builds back up to a wall of guitars, bass and drums with Botti singing right along to keep you in the story every step of the way.

This is a very good recording straight on through and there is not one track that would not be a viable option for a DJ in a brick and mortar radio station or on Internet music channels.

Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck
August 29, 2009

http://www.muzikreviews.com/reviews.php?ID=734
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I dare you to listen to The Company We Keep and not spend days afterward with at least two of the tracks stuck in your head.  If and when those songs dissipate, more will worm their way in. Trust me – I very recently had my first day in weeks without NDD spinning around in my brain.  Well, until I started writing this…now of course I’m hearing the “Misunderstood” riff start.  I’m not a music critic – just a music lover.  I grew up on classic rock.  I was also a child of the 80s…and now I’m a huge alt-rock fan.  I have to say, New Day Dawn seems to bring a little of each genre into The Company We Keep.  Every song is as diverse as the story it tells.  The musicianship and production are awesome.  I am drawn in by each song, wondering where it will take me and what it will tell me -- and I’m never disappointed.  I have been listening to Botti’s songs for years.  Vocally she always has and still does rock it out – a very engaging voice that is a powerhouse of emotion you can’t get enough of.  For me, The Company We Keep no doubt has some of her best songwriting yet – it’s fresh, distinct, familiar, and passionate all at once.  You can’t help but get sucked into every song.  My favs?  “See Me Fall,” “Misunderstood,” “Paralyzed,” “Daddy’s Song,” and “Over You.”  Woops, was that almost the whole album?  It’s hard to pick only one.  Buy It! You’ll see.
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‘The Company We Keep’ is the first full-length release from New Jersey-based foursome New Day Dawn. For this fact alone – a self-produced, first full-length album – all four members of New Day Dawn deserve a standing ovation. The music industry is a tough business and for anyone to get out an album on their own... this is a heroic act!

But ‘The Company We Keep’?

The album kicks off with ‘Misunderstood’. This is an instantly likeable track. It picks up with a very promising guitar/drum intro that is an attention-grabber from the first note. Love this song; love the tune and love the lyrics! It delivers just the right amount of punch to the ears.

By contrast the second number out of the trap, ‘Nowhere Fast’, has a desperately downbeat intro. It isn’t just the beginning that is contradictory. If ‘Misunderstood’ delivered a quick, hard punch and softened up the audience, ‘Nowhere Fast’ goes... nowhere special. On the second listen it’s a foot-tapper. On the third pass in front of the ears it is almost but not quite an attention grabber. But oh what a shame it does not get to where it should have gone.

‘Follow’, the third number, hits the spot first time out. There’s something striking about the way this track is put together; the qualities with which the guitar, bass and drums blend together to support a vocal performance that is slightly raw, a little more edgy than the performance on ‘Nowhere Fast’.

The easy-listening, anthemic, singalong, tapalong Cheryl Crowesque melody of ‘Daddy’s Song’ successfully conceals what surely would have been a banquet of acid bitterness that other artists in this genre would have feasted upon when presented with lyrics such as ‘Where were you when I was ten?’

And this, for me, is part of the difficulty that ‘The Company We Keep’ presents; it is neither fish nor fowl. The album is a huge step away from Dawn Botti’s past credentials, and a handful of shuffled paces closer to musical middle age.

‘The Company We Keep’ is an album of could have been. And for me the contradictions of the first two tracks serve to epitomise the album – and therefore sum up the band.

Stylistically ‘The Company We Keep’ should have delivered a plateful of AOR. Instead we get a side-order of borderline bland sugared coated with advanced musical middle-age. Let me explain. All of these tracks are easy on the ear. None of them are either bleeding edge or leading edge rock. But isn’t that where the kids are these days? Isn’t that what’s selling?

Even Green Day, themselves now rapidly approaching musical middle age – as measured by the speed newer artists are coming on to the scene – continue to deliver punch after punch to their audience. And like her or not, but today’s Pat Benatar is Pink, and look at the energy and dynamism of her work.

New Day Dawn make a brave and valiant attempt at establishing a hit album, but miss the edge that most of the record-buying public of this genre would be looking for.

I believe ‘The Company We Keep’ is an attempt at music for a different breed of music fan. This is Gen X rock’n’roll. This is music for the post-Warhol, post-Bowie baby boomers, people who now drive BMWs; listeners who might have bought Pat Benatar almost two and a half decades ago; people who want the beat but don’t want the raw energy or emotion that the current crop of rockers deliver.

So not an entirely positive review then?

Well hold on there a second...

The penultimate track, ‘Paralyzed’ is the audio gold light hiding under the musical bushel. This is a harder, deeper song. This track has an altogether different musical value than anything else on the album. If there is one thing – if anything can go out and do it – this will be the track that will breakthrough into airplay. This is the hook that the listeners have been waiting for.

‘The Company We Keep’ wheezes to a halting conclusion with a remix of the first track ‘Misunderstood – ’91 Time Machine Remix’ which is too embarrassingly twee to mention.

New Day Dawn is:
Dawn Botti (vocals)
Robert Choe (bass)
Gary Szczecina (drums)
PJ Angeloni (guitar)



Summary
‘The Company We Keep’ is a near-comfortable blend of professionally laid-down, well-layered vocals backed by extremely competent musicianship. How is it not possible to appreciate the composition skills and pre-production values that went in to writing, performing and putting The Company We Keep in to the CD collection?

And despite my reservations, that’s where it should be – in the CD collection. Although this album lacks the bite that aggressive artists in the same genre display – the US’s Paramore and the UK’s Anemo spring immediately to mind – ‘The Company We Keep’ should definitely be part of your collection.

Lead singer Dawn Botti has served her rock apprenticeship as the former frontline vocalist with New Jersey band Slushpuppy. Given this fact it is surprising that New Day Dawn should trudge so heavily down the middle of the road. But as a first full-length album in the genre?

Yeah, this is Good Work; a place-holder, a marker, a promise of what could be to come.




Brennig Jones
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JERSEYBEAT.com

NEW DAY DAWN - The Company We Keep (www.newdaydawnband.com) Offering up a neatly crunchy’n’punchy serving of straight-up thrilling and unpretentious rock with a minimum of fuss and plenty of go-for-it aplomb, this album most certainly hits the spot. Dawn Botti’s passionate vocals are highly impressive. Ditto the steady drums, chugging basslines, and gritty digging guitar riffs. Moreover, the songwriting is smart, thoughtful and reflective, with a nice line in bittersweet regret (the lovely “Nowhere Fast,” the equally beautiful and affecting “Over You”) and a sure grasp of pure snappy rock (the galvanizing “Paralyzed “). A damn fine album. - Joe Wawrzyniak
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