The Bravery: The Sun and the Moon

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "'Every word from your mouth is a knife in my ear/Every thought in your head is like poison to hear,' sings Sam Endicott, the Bravery's songwriter, on this band's second album, 'The Sun and the Moon.' What really matters is what he sings immediately afterward: 'Oh, oh oh oh-oh-ohhh/Oh, oh oh oh-oh-ohh.' Because for all the angst in the Bravery's latest songs, the hooks come first. The Bravery is a pop-rock band and glad of it. That means plenty of nonsense syllables to invite singalongs, and utter shamelessness about borrowing other bands' sounds and tricks. … [T]he band has … picked up the mournful sympathy of Elliott Smith in 'Tragedy Bound' and the exuberant vocal counterpoint of the Turtles and the Beach Boys in 'Angelina,' even as Mr. Endicott sings lines like, 'Everything I have someday will fall apart and fade away.' … [A]nother extended hommage to the Cure would have been a blunder. By trading retro preciousness for craftsmanlike pride, the Bravery has grown no less blatant, but, somehow, more likeable" (5/28/07).