The Bravery - An HonestMistake

Thu 31st Mar, 2005 in Music Reviews

Since the ubiquitous Somebody Told Me by Las Vegas lads The Killers set the hearts of even the most elementary music listener a-flutter, record labels have been clamouring to sign anyone with a set of keys and an appreciation of The Cure – or at least the sartorial sense of Miami Vice. It is therefore easy to be cynical about the rash of synth indie rock bands surging forward with their blazer sleeves pushed up to the elbow just so. The Bravery is a case in point: five dashing young men with meticulously applied eyeliner in varying degrees of severe, asymmetric haircuts to make Interpol’s Carlos D weep, and jacket collars turned up enough to frame pouty faces of despair and longing. Hell, they even made the cover of NME.

Annoyingly, your inner detractor will have to sulk a little longer, because The Bravery’s debut single An Honest Mistake is a perfectly crafted throwaway dance song to swing around the room to in a darkened haze while the disco lights glance ever closer to your neck. Gurgling keys skip along to taut drum machines while synths filter dazzlingly through slinky bass. Guitars snap through occasionally to give it the right amount of ‘rock’, but end up sparkling like the night-lit streets of a drunken Saturday. And a Robert Smith aficionado croons about the cheerless matters of the heart in such a way that makes you want to flail about wildly and grin as vodka sloshes out of your glass. The Bravery will be forgotten in six months, but right now they sound so right. Looking for depth here is not an option – just get up and dance, or you’re missing the point.