The Bravery (album)
Critical reception
Critical reception
------------------

*The Bravery* garnered positive reviews from [music critics](/wiki/Music_journalism "Music journalism") who praised their interpretation of the new wave revival movement. At [Metacritic](/wiki/Metacritic "Metacritic"), which assigns a [normalized](/wiki/Standard_score "Standard score") rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an [average](/wiki/Weighted_mean "Weighted mean") score of 66, based on 24 reviews.

Steve Sutherland of *[Uncut](/wiki/Uncut_%28magazine%29 "Uncut (magazine)")* gave high praise to the new wave revivalist production and the band's musicianship resembling that of their inspirations, in terms of vocals and instrumentals, concluding that, "This album is already one of the debuts of the year. All hail The Bravery and their new bold dream." MacKenzie Wilson of [AllMusic](/wiki/AllMusic "AllMusic") praised the band for taking their influences and making them their own with catchability and upbeat optimism, saying that, "*The Bravery* isn't sonically mind\-blowing, but the new millennium new wave revival remains intriguing. This New York five\-piece makes an interesting effort without it coming off contrived and dishonest."

While finding Endicott's vocal delivery mediocre at best, Nicholas Taylor of *[PopMatters](/wiki/PopMatters "PopMatters")* praised the danceable production and devil\-may\-care lyrics for giving the band a nice platform to start from, concluding with, "This debut is certainly promising, and I look forward to seeing whether the Bravery can begin to carve out a more concrete and distinctive image and place for themselves." [Robert Christgau](/wiki/Robert_Christgau "Robert Christgau") graded the album as a "dud", indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought." *[Pitchfork](/wiki/Pitchfork_%28website%29 "Pitchfork (website)")* writer Adam Moerder criticized the band's unremarkable take on '80s new wave with lacklustre instrumentals and Endicott's vocals sounding too close to [Robert Smith](/wiki/Robert_Smith_%28musician%29 "Robert Smith (musician)") and [Simon Le Bon](/wiki/Simon_Le_Bon "Simon Le Bon"). He gave praise to the tracks "An Honest Mistake" and "Tyrant" for their intricacies in terms of synth and vocal choices, concluding that "Despite these highlights, though, this is still rock made on an assembly line— predictable, economically efficient, and about as dynamic as a Model T."


Can The Bravery carve out a distinctive image and place for themselves?