A Brave New Order (The Bravery - The Bravery)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	The Bravery - The Bravery
Date:	02/12/05 (454 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A great debut album

Disadvantages: You won't like it if you don't like The Killers and the like!

A dimly lit, freezing corner of the urban metropolis of Birmingham is about as far removed as you can get from the glamour of New York Citeh but that’s where I found myself on a cold November night recently. With the gig at The Academy about to get underway I suddenly felt moved to review the band’s inaugural album knowing that it would represent nearly all of the concert (and it did). The Bravery is a 5-piece band originating from NY. The band is made up of Sam Endicott - Vocals/Guitar, Michael Zakarin – Guitar, Mike H. (nicknamed Dirt) - Bass Guitar, John Conway - Keyboard and Anthony Burulcich – Drums.

The Bravery achieved that initial momentum that gets a band over that metaphorical gain line and on the way to stardom in 2003. After playing its first gig at the Stinger Club in Brooklyn, the band eventually gained a recording contract with Island Def Jam in the States and Loog in the U.K. The Unconditional EP followed in early 2005. Attracting serious attention from the rock media including The Village Voice, MTV and Rolling Stone, the band were tipped in the BBC News "Sound of 2005" as 2005's most promising act.

I first encountered the band when they appeared on SoccerAM as guests of Tim Lovejoy. Aware that they had gone on to play at Glastonbury festival in June 2005, I decided to try the album against a back-drop of increasing success for The Bravery. At the festival, the band’s slot had to be shown after the watershed, as the bass guitarist Mike H stripped naked on stage due to the hot weather. He was up to the same antics at the gig I went to firstly climbing on to the top of the stacked speakers and then jumping into the upper tier to strum his bass guitar over the edge of the balcony surrounded by the crowd. The watching hordes loved it; I just worried about him toppling over the edge in my feckless 40-something way.

The debut album, The Bravery, was released in March 2005 in the U.K. and the U.S, following releases of "Unconditional" and "Honest Mistake" as singles. Their first radio airtime came on the show 'Alter Ego' on the Boston radio station WFNX. A co-headlining tour with Ash in the U.S. in spring 2005 coincided the release of the album.

“The Bravery” originally featured 11 tracks although the CD version that I picked up includes the bonus track “Hot Pursuit”. Probably the best known song from the album is the frenetic “Honest Mistake”. Compared by some to New Order’s “Blue Monday” (although I can’t see it myself), “Honest Mistake” clearly establishes the band for what they appear to be, a retro 80’s band with a great synth sound.

Probably the pick of the songs for me and the highpoint of the album is the swaggering, electro anthem “Tyrant”. With hissing lyrics and a corking verse, “Tyrant” (originally entitled “Tyrant’s Mouth”) has the listener hanging on every line “I’m stuck just like a pig/Roasting in your eyes/I’ll believe everything you want/You better teach me how to live). With a longer life at just over 4 minutes, “Tyrant” sweeps the listener along on a pulsing current of emotionally charged lyrics and, for me, is the epitome of what the band is all about.

There is a quorum of strong tracks on the song that make up the success of the first album. “Public Service Announcement” is a funky, drum beat driven track with a looping bass line, a simple guitar line and a catchy verse. Sam Endicott regales the story of how kids in American schools are given their fire training built around the song’s mantra “Stop, drop, and roll, / you're on fire!" It really is a simple but effective set and rocks at concerts! "Unconditional", originally released on EP features a strong bass line while a repeating synth line accompanies the lead singer’s cry of "I just want / something for nothin'.” When you hear a track like this, you can’t help but compare the understated Sam Endicott to either a dark, lounge crooner in the Lou reed mould or even something of a cross between a latter day Morrissey and an early Bono. "Swollen Summer” is the band’s traditional gig opener and a staggering, barn-stormer it is. A crashing strobe light of high octane electro rock fired by a hundred mile an hour guitar riffs make “Swollen Summer” a ready made anthem to carry throughout their career “It’s like a swollen summer/What if I’m getting dumber?/What if I’m just in denial?/What if they come and cop my style?”

“Fearless” is one of the album's strongest tracks, consisting of an obvious synthesiser hook that some compare with Roxy Music and go on to suggest that there is a hint of Brian Eno running through several of the sets. I really liked Eno’s influences on U2 and that dark, silhouette of down beat, electronic melancholia sits nicely within some of The Bravery’s songs. As with most records these days, the weaker tracks are kept to the end and “The Ring Song”, “Rites of Spring” and even the bonus track aren’t as strong as the rest of the album. The marketing men are hardly likely to try and put you off when in the record shop listening through your ear-phones with a purchasing decision at stake. I will qualify that by saying that these tracks aren’t that bad at all but with a more laconic feel they do feel a little out of place with the rest of the album when it's operating at a higher intensity. Not forgetting “Give in”, “Out of Line” and “No Brakes”, these are all strong efforts that belong with the best songs on the CD.

Production is suitably intense coming from the lead man, Sam Endicott who also penned the lyrics for all but “Tyrant” which was co-written with John Conway whilst a similar arrangement included Gillian Conway on “Hot Pursuit”. Mixed at Bushwick studio and mastered in Los Angeles, the quality is first class. This album is already one of the debuts of the year with several of the tracks being sampled to support TV companies (“Unconditional” was used to as a trailer for episodes of “Casualty”).

To sum up The Bravery, they are an intense, dark band bitten by numerous post punk influences but the sum of the parts works and they have a big future. An amalgam of crashing guitar, strident bass lines, rhythmic drum rolls and angst-ridden lyrics about life and love make them the kind of product you’d expect to roll out of fashionable New York. Their songs float on a plane of emotion culminating in a textbook pop song usually lasting the traditional 3 or 4 minutes. Catchy and full of meaning, The Bravery are a band that will appeal to a past generation and a new wave of listeners not so familiar with the New Wave times of a past decade. If you like The Killers then you’ll like The Bravery. If you like New Order, The Ramones, U2 or most bands that sit astride an Indie label then you’ll probably like The Bravery. Personally, I love ‘em!

Thanks for reading.

Marandina

More info at: www.thebravery.com (including track listings)
Various deals available at www.play.com and www.amazon.co.uk.
I bought this for £9.77 at Tesco.

Summary: Overview of The Bravery debut album