The Bravery

Sam Endicott will probably never be taken seriously. Not after fronting a band called Skabba the Hut. Not after switching ridiculous dreadlocks for an even more ridiculous faux-hawk. And certainly not after taking a feud with the Killers' Brandon Flowers seriously. It's too bad because Endicott's band the Bravery has made a second album that is worth taking seriously. On The Sun and the Moon, the New York five-piece trades in the faux British accents and Duran Duran synthesizer flares of its self-titled 2005 debut for something a little more real. Bursting to life with sweeping, opulently textured songs like "This Is Not the End" and "Time Won't Let Me Go," it's a warmer and statelier set that seems somehow more dignified. Give or take a few stray lyrics, it could easily pass for the work of a band that has unexpectedly stumbled on credibility. --Aidin Vaziri

2007-05-22 - Island