Review Summary: A fine album that leaves room improvement.
Too often, I had heard the name The Bravery tossed around with good and bad tag lines following. Even still, I never sat down and truly listened to the band despite the couple mainstream radio friendly singles. Finally I had enough, I was convinced by a friend that has a reasonably good ear for music to listen. What I heard from The Bravery’s sophomore album
The Sun and the Moon was not a magnificent work of art, although nor was it bad by any means. It is a fun album with catchy hooks, decent instruments, and average lyrics that equal out to a well-rounded listen. Unfortunately the album does not expand much from there.
After a quick little electro intro track the album goes quickly into one of the bands most recognized songs.
Believe, is a track with strong guitar particularly in the solo, but the vocals lag lyrically and musically. The childishly simple chorus lyrics, “Give me something to believe,” are sung in a bland fashion without any noticeable effort.
Believe is one of those songs you either hate or love, except usually the lovers are only in it for its catchiness. As with a lot of mainstream acts catchiness is a curse of
The Sun and the Moon. The track
This is Not the End, is relatively similar to
Believe in the sense that the guitars are just fine, but the vocals shine a bit more as they seem a bit more lively, particularly on the, “la la la” that are featured in the chorus.
The album goes on well with a constant flow of decent vocals and instruments but bland lyrics obviously noticeable on
Every Word Is A Knife In My Ear and
Bad Sun. The first of which takes a more straightforward rock approach with yelling vocals and loud, fast guitars. The other,
Bad Sun, has a more electronic and more light flair. This light and airy feel makes
Bad Sun a standout track due to its departure from the formula of the previous songs. Thankfully, the instruments tend to take over more in this distracting from the boring vocals, “I think we grew under the bad sun/I know we are not like everyone.”
Easily the two best songs on
The Sun and the Moon appear on the last half of the album.
Tragedy Bound takes a slower acoustic and violin angle that is played with emotion musically and sung decently.
Tragedy Bound is the biggest departure the band as made, even more so than
Bad Sun, as it much more emotionally riveting and bare than most songs that The Bravery put out.
Split Me Open is quite opposite of
Tragedy Bound in terms of tempo and amount of instruments playing, but emotionally the songs are equal.
Split Me Open features some of the best vocals on the whole album because of the raw energy put in them, these vocals are laid over a upbeat electronic/guitar combo.
From what can be gathered,
The Sun and the Moon is a decent album with highs and lows scattered throughout. Despite the lows it is still an enjoyable listen overall but The Bravery has much room for improvement, particularly in the lyric department. This is nothing that cannot be fixed with a little practice though; a sign of hope that any future releases with be an upgrade from where this left off.
