The self-titled debut album by The Bravery has grabbed the No. 5 spot on the British charts during the album’s first week of sale, and high demand forced the band to add extra tour dates on top of already sold-out shows in London.
Whether this overseas success will translate to an American audience remains to be seen, however. Despite being an American band, this five-piece group from New York City released its U.S. album one week ago, two weeks after its European release.
The Bravery – the latest in a string of “The” bands including The Strokes, The Killers and The Hives – will perform this Saturday at Promowest Pavilion as part of “CD101 Day,” an annual concert that highlights up-and-coming performers. Last year’s headliners included The Killers, a band that has since climbed the music charts with its hit single, “Mr. Brightside.”
In an ongoing battle of words in the British press, The Killers’ lead singer, Brandon Flowers, called The Bravery imitators of his band, and said “people will see through them,” according to MTV News.
These comparisons are justified, though, because of similarities between The Bravery’s self-titled album and The Killers’ “Hot Fuss.” In much of the band’s guitar work, The Bravery uses similar effects as The Killers, and lead singer and songwriter Sam Endicott’s vocals sound much like Flowers’.
The Killers are not the only influence evident on The Bravery’s debut. The band tips its hat to fellow New York City rockers the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with a synthesizer line on “Unconditional,” while “Swollen Summer” borrows heavily from The Hives’ “Supply and Demand.” “Public Service Announcement” is strikingly similar to Franz Ferdinand’s “Auf Achse.”
The album’s biggest problem is that it sounds like all these other bands and fails to achieve anything original. The lyrics are at times contrived: The second line in “Fearless” is “Something wicked this way comes,” a direct reference to William Shakespeare’s “MacBeth,” and more recently, the Harry Potter series. The riffs sound borrowed; in fact, a few of them might be.
Focusing in on copycat flaws, however, does not mean this album is a flop. The album kicks off with “An Honest Mistake,” the band’s first single, featuring a driving synthesizer riff that segues into Endicott’s best Franz Ferdinand impression. The chorus to “Out of Line” will have listeners nodding their head in time with the song, assuming they can get through the strange synthesizer line that opens the track.
The album lacks a stand-out song, such as The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside,” or Franz Ferdinand’s “Take Me Out.”
Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but whether that’s a good thing is debatable when it comes to The Bravery.
