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When singer Ryan Sambol’s vocals begin to pile into your consciousness, the first priority is not to hear what he’s singing, but to discover if this is what one might loosely term singing. Prolonged listening, though, reveals that he has innate melodic instincts, but he is determined to wrap them in barbed wire. As the songs progress, the challenge becomes working out exactly what conventional melody The Strange Boys had in mind before they happily pillaged it into an unrecognisable state.
The words themselves, then, are something to consider after you’ve digested the sonics. Broadly swaggering and occasionally hilarious, they suit the desert-dry recordings perfectly. On Laugh At Sex, Not Her, the humorous predicament of over-hearing some nocturnal flatmate’s shenanigans is buoyed quite sweetly by the distant, winding guitar line – we’re encouraged to laugh along at this sordid voyeurism and, to be honest, there’s nothing guilty about that particular pleasure. When introspection reigns on All You Can Inside, with its Leonard Cohen-esque lilt, the tendency is to study each and every crackle of Sambol’s voice, the governing quiet a wonderful accompaniment to his words.
2010, then, seems to be somewhere we can place a little bit of faith that rock‘n’roll will continue happily along its merry path to the mainstream. Be Brave is not quite the barnstormer that its lead single suggests, but there is enough gumption to see The Strange Boys through any scrutiny of their credentials. What’s more, folk will discover that they’ve got sensitivity in spades, as much as they might try to hide it with scuzz and disharmony. --Daniel Ross
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Customer Reviews
On Be Brave, these Austin boys have welcomed new blood. Darker My Love's Tim Presley joins the ranks, as does the now defunct Mika Miko's Jenna Thornhill and Seth Densham. It's peculiar then that rather have become more ragged and perhaps psychedelic as one might have expected, Be Brave focuses on their full-length debut's quieter and more subdued moments whilst retaining their nostalgic crackle and fizz all the while.
Now, Sambol croaks and mews where once he arguably sang. Their rhythms are even more horizontal nearly disappearing into a soothing diaphanousness of their own creation. With the ramshackle, glam exception of "Da Da", which aligns itself with The Smith Westerns, the Be Brave canon is closer to the most barely-there Rolling Stones moments and Bob Dylan's ballads (see the toe-tapping harmonica parps of "I See") than it is to their previous R&B take on garage-rock.
There is still room however for a light psych flourish in the guitar-worked climax of "A Walk On The Beach", a little rootsy Americana à la Delta Spirit on the blustery title track and single. "Between Us" is altogether more plodding as is "Dare I Say", whereas the well-worn piano of "The Unsent Letter" adds dusty authenticity to Sambol's nasal bleat. Be Brave closes with "You Can't Only Love When You Want", a desert-blues tear-jerker than in name suggests further affiliation with Jagger's own strange boys.
Though Rough Trade are doing the distribution, The Strange Boys remain an In The Red band at heart. In a truly brave move, their catchy refrains and fun-time rock `n' roll have been turned down in favour of Sambol's off-the-wall harmonies, but they remain contenders. With further consistency, Black Lips may need to watch out yet.
But whilst I've heard some people say it has just a couple of songs they like, including the song that was on Skins (Be Brave), I have always enjoyed this genre of Southern/Garage Rock music, so all of the songs appeal to me.
I guess you probably do have to be a dedicated fan, as whilst it's got tones of The White Stripes, it certainly doesn't have the same mainstream sound or appeal that they do. I would suggest trying YouTube for a few of their songs before coming to a conclusion on whether this album is for you or not, but if very laid back garage rock is your thing, go for it!
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