British rock band Lonely The Brave, made up of singer David Jakes, guitarist Mark Trotter, drummer Gavin Edgeley, bassist Andrew Bushen, and most recently second guitarist Joel Mason, released their brand new album The Day’s War on September 1, 2014. Originally from Cambridge, their biggest musical influences include The National, This Will Destroy You and Pearl Jam, with all band members being fans of metal and hardcore music. The band composes nice guitar riffs and thoughtful lyrics, all surrounded by the powerful singing of Jakes.
They are very committed to their music, and also give the best of Lonely The Brave during their renowned live shows, with guitarist Trotter stating that, “we give everything we can possibly give to every single show“. During live concerts, lead singer David Jakes stands facing away from the crowd, to people it may look a little different from the usual stage set-up but this is how the band feels comfortable while performing. The group defines their music in the genre of “Doom-Pop”. The idea for this genre came while on tour with American band Bad Rabbits.
“Black Saucers”:
The band’s first single “Black Saucers” was mind-blowing, and premiered on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show as the ‘Hottest Record in the World‘. The song starts with a strong melodic guitar as an introduction for about thirty seconds. Afterwards enters Jakes on vocals, with his unique timbre which takes over the melody on the song – the music gets tenser while reaching the chorus. This track is the fastest and heaviest of the album, and it captures our attention the most while listening to it. This is definitely the track to listen to, if you want to get a feel of Lonely The Brave.
The album comprises of fifteen solid songs, with the principal theme of the album focusing around “life”, a normal life with its ups and downs. It’s an album largely about the emotions we feel, concerning good and bad moments which we all have to get through during the course of our lives. “Victory Line”, for example exploring the motion of sadness, is a very good song with lot of guitar playing, very well balanced between tension and more relaxed parts, which enrich the music. The guitar riffs are very well adjusted in order to achieve the needed tension in part of the song, especially when the second guitar and Jakes’ vocals enter the picture – a very nice idea from the musicians!
“Victory Line”:
At the other end of the spectrum and contrary to the emotion on “Victory Line”, comes the song “Trick of the Light”. We can divide the music on this song into two parts, as the first half of the track sees the instrumentals play more of an accompanying role to signer David Jakes, and towards the ending, the song intensifies sonically and we feel the instrumentals come more to the forefront. The lyrics make us think in a form of a life story. It is a very beautiful song and I advise you to listen to it!
Lonely The Brave is a fresh new band with original ideas and very captivating music. I truly believe that Rock listeners will like this band for its beautiful innovations. The album is very well made, including other tracks like “Islands”, which is an excellent song with lot of electric guitar, and a very nice solo, and “Deserter”, which is not so captivating like the other tracks listed, but also worth listening to. I also like the order of the songs on the album as we find a temperament change passing from one track to another.
“Trick Of The Light”:
In the middle of the album, we also find an instrumental track, almost representing a bridge that binds us, from the first part to the second part of the album. I also advise you to listen to tracks like “The Blue, The Green”, the album’s title track “The Day’s War”, with nice guitar arpeggios and “Call of Horses” accompanied by good guitar riffs. I really like this new album from the British rock band and it will surely be on my playlist. I hope you will like The Day’s War too. Rock lovers, this band is definitely made for you, enjoy it!!
Purchase: Lonely The Brave – The Day’s War (iTunes)
Words by Walid Hedari // Edited by Ayo Adepoju
