Album Review: The Bravery
Stir The Blood
The Bravery
Here we go with another new album from The Bravery, which means the professional critics are piling on so quick the reviews are as half-assed as they are negative. It’s hardly a surprise – this is an antagonistic band, intentionally so or not. There’s something in vocalist Sam Endicott’s delivery and demeanor that both transmits and invites scorn.
So let’s save the indignation and get a couple well known caveats out of the way: 1. Yes, the band are hardly the most original. 2. Yes, the band are truly terrible live. 3. Yes, their best song was Honest Mistake and 4. Yes, they’re probably never going to be that good again.
Okay, got it out of your system? If not go through the list again because once you get past that justifiable tension you’ll find Stir The Blood has got some great songs on it. It’s New York club music, made to be listened to whilst leaning against a reverberating wall, the volume so loud the instruments are indistinguishable. It comes across cynical, ruminates on alienation and withdrawal, and moves like a twenty-something with a sway lifted from a Goddard movie.
Yeah, you want to pop the band one in the mouth, but that doesn’t change the fact that these guys can take a well worn set of tools and build a catchy song. Is it memorable? Probably not, but for a moment in time it’s both pugilistic and beautiful and that’s a far sight more than most bands can do.
[Off Stir The Blood, out now. Stream It. Buy It.]
Tags: The Bravery
This band have burned me too often in the past (including live), but at least you've given them a chance. I read some of the reviews out there and you could see the digital bite marks.
It has become amusing to read the reviews because you can tell many of them were written as fast as possible so the writer could get his jabs in before the blogosphere become flooded. There are some stunningly awful reviews of this album floating around, both in terms of the reviewer's opinion and the reviewer's writing.
Lovely review…I had read some pretty negative reviews before I read this, but I think you make a good point. I've always kind of liked them, even though they do sound like everything out there. I had a chance to see them live too…but now it sounds like it's probably a good idea I didn't go.
Is this album buyworthy, though? That's what I'm wondering.
For me it is.
Give it a stream on LaLa or Spotify and see what you think.