I'm making headway in my career as a music journalist so I won't be writing for a while and my alert...
I'm making headway in my career as a music journalist so I won't be writing for a while and my alerts are now deactivated. I'll check back some time in the future, so until then...
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There appears at the moment a move towards the revival of the new romantic era (yikes) with an extra bit of rock 'n' roll swagger (phew), with lush keyboard melodies beefed up with frantic guitars. Duran Duran have never been so cool. The latest band to emerge as part of this scene are New York's the Bravery, consisting of Sam Endicott (vocals/guitar), Michael Zakarin (guitar), Mike H. (bass), John Conway (keyboards) and Anthony Burulcich (drums) This is their self-titled debut release. It's not very good.
Oh, there's a decent tune or two on this album. But over-riding this is the fact that it's all just so calculated, so studied and therefore so lacking in any kind of passion and integrity that this makes this album quite a dispiriting listen. The Bravery are simply a Xerox copy of bands that have come before them, borrowing quite liberally (and unashamedly) from other 'now' bands of the moment, such as the Strokes, Hot Hot Heat, Fischerspooner and more. It is taking a certain template (and a successful template at that) and photocopying it ad infinitum until there exists very little originality. But the biggest band that the Bravery have hijacked are the Killers, a rather smart and savvy band who are the current darlings of the music media.
The Bravery are the Killers, but a Killers devoid of wit, charm and sophistication. Yes, they've got the up-to-the-minute clothing and the eyeliner, but they haven't got the special 'x factor' which makes the Killers a rather important band, and makes the Bravery a bunch of dim-witted no-hopers who will be forgotten about by the end of 2005. Love or hate the Killer (and I love 'em), you cannot deny their ability to write a decent chorus or two. The Bravery
can't do this. The choruses on this album are remarkably dull and completely unmemorable. It's as though the Bravery have approached being in a band from a marketing point of view, looking at the aesthetic before the musical, as if they had decked themselves out in their latest charity shop finest before sitting down to write a decent tune or two. For the Bravery, artifice is everything and unfortunately, when you scratch the surface, there's very little substance.
'No Brakes' is an effective demonstration that this is a band with no artistic roots of their own, everything they possess, from the tunes to the lyrics to the brand of clothing they wear has been borrowed from somebody else. 'No Brakes' could be anything by any number of bands at the moment: bands who did this kind of thing first, bands who did this kind of thing better. Lead single 'An Honest Mistake' goes one step further, taking Duran Duran's classic 'Planet Earth' and, um, not doing very much with it. It has exactly the same tune, beat and structure, only the words are different (unfortunately, the Bravery demonstrate that they cannot even better the awful lyrics of Simon Le Bon). If I were Le Bon, Nick Rhodes or one of the unrelated Taylors I would be consulting my lawyers. But, then again, Duran Duran are probably loving the fact that somebody, somewhere actually thinks they are worth something more than pop fluff and use them as a reference point. The song is just about the only moment on the album where you feel that the band are actually putting some effort in, and consequently it is the sole highlight, leaving no surprises as to why it was chosen as the lead single.
The album has been designed with a specific audience in mind: the wannabe's and tryhard's who fall for this kind of 'this band will change your life', 'most important band of the year' nonsense peddled by the music press, a pulpit in which the NME is the usual preacher. It's for people who want to be hipsters, who are convinced they are hipsters but sadly aren't. These aren't wannabe's but more like never-will-be's. We should pity such people instead of mocking them, for they know not what they do; to mock such a tragic species of record buyer would be like pulling the legs of a bird that has hurt its wings. Let them pump 'Honest Mistake' from their stereo, thinking that they are the coolest creatures to tread this beautiful planet, because soon enough they'll find another 'now' band to follow.
Lyrically, the band aren't up to scratch as awful couplets like "I wonder why I never wonder why/The easiest things are so hard" ('Unconditional') prove. 'Tyrant' further proves this thesis, the song serving as an ultra-lame quasi-political statement. It makes a change from the usual reliance on sex, drugs and debauchery, but it is handled so poorly you wonder why they bothered. 'Swollen Summer' has a wonderful title but fails to live up to this early promise (the early promise, that is, of seeing the track listing on the CD cover). The song has good, frenetic guitars but, crucially, it lacks a decent melody upon which the song can be built. This is true of the vast majority of songs here, songs that have had any life battered out of them in the attempt to box them into a certain formula.
The vast majority of the songs here are forgettable in the extreme. Dull, anodyne songs with no distinction between one song and the next. If they were ice cream flavours they would be paler than vanilla. It's such a turgid exercise in mediocrity that you wonder if the band can actually be bothered to drag themselves away from the sex and drugs that they are enjoying to indulge in some actual rock 'n' roll and write a tune or two worth listening to. It's background music of the worst possible kind, modern day muzak with no chutzpah, rock 'n' roll minus the rock and the roll, a weak, flimsy record with no testosterone.
The discovery that Sam Endicott once sported dreadlocks and was in a ska band by the name of (get this) Skabba The Hut (stop giggling) effectively proves that this is a band with very little artistic integrity, the Bravery are true bandwagon-hoppers (though we can forgive Endicott somewhat for the comedic value of the band name, possibly the worst name for any band ever). Endicott is a singer who is completely free of charisma, unable to inject even the slightest hint of passion into the material he is singing, so no matter how good the tune might be, this vague, uninteresting vocal is off-putting. It is such an obvious rip-off of the halfway meeting point between Phil Oakey of the Human League and Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, but devoid of the charm and wit of either. Endicott also sounds so miserable, when the debauched lifestyle led by the band (which they openly boast about) leads you to believe that this is certainly not the case, a quite insincere lyricism which makes you wonder what on earth he is moaning about.
Bandwagon jumpers in the worst possible sense, the Bravery should be given a wide berth. The band have acted like thieves in the night to jump onto the current vogue. It's not a new thing, it has been going for years. When clapped-out old drab-rockers the Stranglers saw the way the tide was moving, they suddenly became a punk band (and while it got them the necessary exposure, it didn't actually make them any good). When new wave came along, suddenly the Knack (those 'My Sharona' guys) came along and jumped upon the bandwagon. The Bravery are the latest in a long, long line of bandwagon jumpers and this should be kept in mind.
When the collective erection that the music press is sporting for this oh-so-fashionable band subsides, a balanced and objective look at this 'album of the moment' will reveal it to be shallow, insubstantial, false and, quite simply, crap. Ignore this band, and hopefully they will go away.
'The Bravery' is available from Amazon.co.uk for £8.99. Buy it at your peril.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
I see what you mean about copying bands but the Killers ripped of Idlewild and the cooper temple clause so their all as bad as each other really I feel 1 star is a bit too low I mean an honest mistake is worth at least 3 it's that good. Buying this for only 2 quid off ebay was a good idea it's not amazing but the few good songs are amazing
Ihatemusic 24.10.2005 17:16
considering that I dont even like An honest mistake I shouldnt check this album out i guess
ThierryHenryisGOD 28.07.2005 20:24
Was thinking about buying this but did find it a bit suspicious that they surfaced on the back of the Year of the Killers so thanks for this exceptional review.
Like their fellow New Yorkers The Strokes, The Bravery recycle the music of their youth ... more
and add a modern sensibility (as well as a pin-up swagger). But whereas The Strokes focussed on the guitar-rock of the Velvet Underground and Television, The Braver...
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Advantages: Electro-pop brilliance, some real anthems including 'Honest Mistake' and 'Unconditional' , the first half of the album Disadvantages: The Killers vs The Bravery feud, the last half of the album
darkangelwing 19.07.2006 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bravery, The - Bravery
Advantages: Absolute ear candy Disadvantages: VERY unoriginal!
tonguelessghostofsin 02.02.2008 (02.02.2008)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bravery, The - Bravery
Advantages: A very Eighties feel with some rock thrown in, excellent musicianship,a refreshing change, Disadvantages: The cover, the inside pics but they can be forgiven
peterkinxl5 18.05.2005 (18.05.2005)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bravery, The - Bravery
Advantages: Electro-pop brilliance, some real anthems including 'Honest Mistake' and 'Unconditional' , the first half of the album Disadvantages: The Killers vs The Bravery feud, the last half of the album
darkangelwing 19.07.2006 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bravery, The - Bravery
Jun 8th, 2005
exceptional by (9%):
very helpful by (91%):
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