The Bravery - "The Sun and the Moon" Era (May 22)

[Kyla]

The Bravery will release its second Island Records album, The Sun And The Moon, May 22. The first single will be “Time Won’t Let Me Go.” Fans can listen to a medley of three new Bravery songs – “Believe,” “This Is Not The End,” and “Time Won’t Let Me Go” – exclusively on the band’s official Web site. Other tracks on the disc will include “The Ocean,” “Believe,” “Bad Sun,” and “Every Word from Your Mouth is A Knife in My Ear.”

The Sun And The Moon was produced and mixed by two-time Grammy Award winner Brendan O’Brien (Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young,Red Hot Chili Peppers).

The new album comes just two years after the release of the band’s self-titled Island debut, which debuted at No. 5 in the U.K. and at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it spent 24 weeks.


Unofficial Track List:

• Intro
  
• Believe
  
• This is Not the End
  
• Every Word From Your Mouth is a Knife in My Ear
  
• Bad Sun
  
• Time Won't Let Me Go (First Single)
  
• Tragedy Bound
  
• Fist Full of Sound
  
• Angelina
  
• Split Me Wide Open
  
• Above and Beyond
  
• The Ocean
  

Song Sampler featuring 'Believe', 'This is Not the End' and 'Time Won't Let Me Go'


Official Site
Official Myspace

[oscillations.]

I watched their entire SXSW set.
Their sound has infinitely improved.
I was actually stunned.

[joker]

I heard "Time Won't Let Me Go" and came away unimpressed on first listen. After listening to that 3-song sampler, I'll still pass on getting the album, but the single isn't as bad as I made it out to be in their thread in the Alternative forum.

debuted at No. 5 in the U.K. and at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 album chart, where it spent 24 weeks.

I didn't realize it peaked that high on the US chart. The new one should be a cinch top 10 debut, then.

[oscillations.]

single is shooting up the alternative charts already!

[roentgenizdat]

The Bravery announce North American tour

The New York rockers support their forthcoming album

The Bravery have announced the dates of an extensive tour in support of their forthcoming album, 'The Sun And The Moon'.

In addition to playing three April gigs in the UK as previously announced, the New York rockers will play several dates throughout North America.

They'll kick off their American jaunt in Vancouver on May 14 and hit Portland's Wonder Ballroom, New York's Irving Plaza, and several points in between.

They'll wrap up the tour in St. Louis, Missouri on June 20.

The band's second full-length is due out in May in the US and July in the UK.

The first single, 'Time Won't Let Me Go', is now available via US iTunes.

The North American tour dates are:

Vancouver, BC Commodore Ballroom (May 14)
Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom (15)
Seattle, WA El Corazon (16)
Cleveland, OH Agora Ballroom (25)
Detroit Magic Stick (26)
Toronto, ON Opera House (28)
New York, NY Irving Plaza (29, 30)
Nashville, TN Exit In (June 3)
Philadelphia, PA TLA (5)
Washington DC 9:30 Club (7)
Reno, NV New Oasis (12)
Salt Lake, UT Club Sound (13)
Omaha, NE The Rock (15)
Minneapolis, MN Varsity (18)
Kansas City, MO Beaumont Club (19)
St Louis, MO Pop's (20)

[tortuga]

Boring album title.

[roentgenizdat]

They'll be on FUSE's The Sauce this coming Monday.

[areyoureadytojump]

Billboard:

ARTIST: THE BRAVERY

SINGLE: TIME WON'T LET ME GO

The Bravery's first single from forthcoming sophomore album "The Sun and the Moon" finds the New York-based quintet ironing out dance-rock creases and embracing a simpler downtempo sound. Frontman Sam Endicott wistfully sings of life's regrets and missed opportunities as his throaty vocals soar and crack between synth-infused guitar riffs. While demonstrating maturity, the song lacks the same gusto and innovation prevalent on 2005's self-titled debut, which earned the Bravery comparisons to Island labelmates the Killers. Nonetheless, with indie-pop flavor and a high-school-anthem vibe "Time" will find a home at modern rock radio.

[joker]

They'll be on the Jimmy Kimmel show this Wednesday night.

[WotUNeed]

Damn, forgot about this album ... maybe if the local alternative station would give Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach, and Linkin Park a rest, I'd remember the other current alt albums out.

I don't usually watch Kimmell but I'll have to try to catch this one.

Now the dilemma - Maroon5, Erasure, and The Bravery all dropping on the same day!

[areyoureadytojump]

Out today in the USA!!

[winner2000]

Good god this album sucks so badly...what a let down.

[areyoureadytojump]

Billboard.biz:

Other debuts on The Billboard 200 include the Bravery's second album, "The Sun and the Moon," at No. 24 with 22,000. The act's self-titled debut opened at No. 18 with 34,000 in 2005.

[roentgenizdat]

Other debuts on The Billboard 200 include the Bravery's second album, "The Sun and the Moon," at No. 24 with 22,000. The act's self-titled debut opened at No. 18 with 34,000 in 2005.

06/09: NEW 24 THE BRAVERY THE SUN AND THE MOON 21,795 23 21,818

[joker]

They can't be thrilled at debuting lower on the chart with fewer sales than their first cd... they need to start pushing a new single quick ("Believe"?).

[jaxxalude]

I'm not one to wish anyone bad. But when such an untalented, derivative, personality-devoid band like The Bravery are being promoted as some sort of artistically credible thing, I can't help but enjoy the fact that the public is not letting itself be fooled and is voicing its opinion by not buying their records. Goodbye, The Bravery. I'm sure some McDonald's or Starbucks in New York City is hiring at the moment.

[oscillations.]

They're really popular in NYC, actually. They are playing several sold out shows here this week, including one tonight.

[joker]

Predictably, Pitchfork's review isn't a glowing one:

The Bravery
The Sun and the Moon
[Island; 2007]
Rating: 1.8

Like it or not, a lot of today's mainstream rock acts are resurrecting the lost art of the concept album to surprising degrees of success. While old staples like Nine Inch Nails or Red Hot Chili Peppers spiced up their recent twilight albums with the respective themes of apocalypse and love-via-music, newer groups have embraced the concept album to the point of self-reinvention. Take My Chemical Romance-- whose Welcome to the Black Parade LP's affinity for Queen-sized riffs and glam-rock pomp raised many elitists' eyebrows-- making Top 40 music more intriguing for an indie contingent long nauseated by the Linkin Parks and Nickelbacks of the world.

Then there's the Killers, the synth-rock monoliths inexorably linked to Brooklyn parasites the Bravery. Although Hot Fuss served as the nefarious stem cell to the seemingly hundreds of new wave/post-punk revivalist clones-- the Bravery included-- Brandon Flowers & co. risked alienating their fanbase by swapping 80s icons on Sam's Town, replacing airy Duran Duran electro-pop with stone-washed Bruce Springsteen ethos. No matter how many prefabricated altercations Flowers and Bravery frontman Sam Endicott want to engage in, the latter can't deny his debt to the former: The Bravery's self-titled debut flourished in the new-wave niche carved out by the Killers. Unsurprisingly, the band now appears at a loss for a next move on their follow-up, The Sun and the Moon, jilted by a dance-rock scene that's grown less and less forgiving with every soulless, four-on-the-floor wannabe anthem.

To understand what a failure of a record this is, you have to consider the few redeeming qualities of the band's self-titled debut. Despite its shameless Cure copping, "An Honest Mistake" left open the possibility of the band becoming a jaded, Americanized Franz Ferdinand, while "Fearless" and "No Brakes" flashed subtler, smarter synth and basslines than nearly anything on Hot Fuss. However, seeking to now eschew their blatant touchstones, the band strips down to a more guitar-based mush not beholden to any one or two specific influences, but remains shockingly unoriginal nonetheless.

Modern rock fixture Brendan O'Brien mans the boards here, spackling the band's sound with as much fluff and plastic as his early 90s records had grunge and feedback. First single "Time Won't Let Me Go" candy-coats Endicott's slit-wrist pathos, wrapping sunny organs and Coldplay-style reverb riffs around the frontman as he bitches about how dreary life was before he became a fabulous rock star: "I never had a summer of '69/ Never had a Cherry Valance of my own/ All these precious moments you promised me would come in time."

As annoying as Endicott's mascara-tainted bellyaching was on the Bravery's debut, his histrionics-for-the-masses commandeer the group's stylistic direction on The Sun and the Moon, cheapening already trite regurgitations of Robert Smith confessionals by bloating them to anthemic proportions. "Every Word Is a Knife in My Ear", an utterly unsexy, castrated version of "Take Me Out", wouldn't even be plausible as a sticker on a goth teenager's bookbag-- let alone as a relatable relationship grievance. Even worse, "Tragedy Bound"-- the album's stab at a tearjerking, showstopping acoustic ballad amidst a barrage of smug one-liners and putdowns-- follows the traditional Britpop formula for lamenting female depravity, right down to Endicott occasionally lapsing into a mopey British accent.

There was a time when the most desperate of NME apostles could argue that the Bravery had simply been victims of indie elitists' version of McCarthyism. After all, Razorlight, the Killers, and any number of other hacks hailed as part of a dance-rock revolution by the notorious British tabloid had heated purists' blood to a boiling point, practically guaranteeing the Bravery as DOA when their debut hit. However, The Sun and the Moon-- an album content to find hooks with the least resistance, to place the last 10 years of indie rock in a blender, and try to foist that gruel as something novel, to offend the very art of rock'n'roll-- vindicates even those extremists who practically urged to blacklist this band. Have you no sense of decency, Bravery?

-Adam Moerder, May 31, 2007

[joker]

On a more positive note, the group debuted on the Hot 100 Bubbling Under chart:

18 - 1 Time Won't Let Me Go, The Bravery

[Ling-Ling]

I laughed out loud when I read that review this morning, totally over-the-top and unreasonable, as their reviews sometimes are (Stylus' review for Yours Truly, Angry Mob comes to mind as well). Most of the reviews for this are mixed to positive, not that reviews really matter.

I actually thought their debut album was borderline disasterous. They've made some big improvements on this one IMO. It's nice to see them outclass The Killers after Brandon's ego-tripping a few years back. Definately a better sophomore effort than The Killer's wannabe epic turd of a record.

[roentgenizdat]

joker said:

On a more positive note, the group debuted on the Hot 100 Bubbling Under chart:

18 - 1 Time Won't Let Me Go, The Bravery

Knocked down to #24 on the reprocessed chart.

[joker]

roentgenizdat said:

joker said:

On a more positive note, the group debuted on the Hot 100 Bubbling Under chart:

18 - 1 Time Won't Let Me Go, The Bravery

Knocked down to #24 on the reprocessed chart.

Ah, I had heard something like this could happen because of a bunch of overlooked AI-related tracks. Do you have a link to the updated chart?

[oscillations.]

Just because of all the hate & scapegoating, I'm in the mood to support the Bravery. I'm adopting them. I'm glad the payola was/is working for them on radio.

[oscillations.]

duh5 said:

I laughed out loud when I read that review this morning, totally over-the-top and unreasonable, as their reviews sometimes are (Stylus' review for Yours Truly, Angry Mob comes to mind as well). Most of the reviews for this are mixed to positive, not that reviews really matter.

I actually thought their debut album was borderline disasterous. They've made some big improvements on this one IMO. It's nice to see them outclass The Killers after Brandon's ego-tripping a few years back. Definately a better sophomore effort than The Killer's wannabe epic turd of a record.

I pretty much agree with this entire post. Kudos.

[jaxxalude]

joker said:

Predictably, Pitchfork's review isn't a glowing one

Predictably, Pitchfork is right. So much predictability is so... predictable, seeing that the band in question incarnates predictability so well.

[jaxxalude]

cherrycrush said:

Just because of all the hate & scapegoating, I'm in the mood to support the Bravery. I'm adopting them. I'm glad the payola was/is working for them on radio.

Good for you. Meanwhile, the rest of the world yawns, and The Bravery are still confined to the Joke Book of the 00's.

[joker]

jaxxalude said:

joker said:

Predictably, Pitchfork's review isn't a glowing one

Predictably, Pitchfork is right. So much predictability is so... predictable, seeing that the band in question incarnates predictability so well.

Predictable response.

(as was this post)

[oscillations.]

Joker, that icon is beyond sexy! So evil and lascivious. <3
And the SXSW performance is being repeated all month long on DirecTV, making for decent promo. They're playing a sold out show in Philly tonight, too, at the same place I'll be tomorrow night for the BRMC show.

[joker]

cherrycrush said:

Joker, that icon is beyond sexy! So evil and lascivious. <3

Thanks! I knew I had to use it when I came across it, it's tough finding a Joker pic that matches my best qualities! ;)

[roentgenizdat]

06/16: 24 75 THE BRAVERY THE SUN AND THE MOON 8,588 -61 21,795 30,406