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On 2009’s debut, …And Girls Club, the Strange Boys grape-vined through sixteen songs of unabashed, uninhibited, youthful garage rock. Their tunes wavered between alt-country, blues and R&B, and sultry lo-fi noodling — all maintaining the indiscernible trademark of front man Ryan Sambol’s cerebral, tongue-in-cheek whimsy. Critics applauded it and (a few) disliked it — all for the same reasons. The Strange Boys just didn’t seem to be playing by the rules.
For their latest offering, Be Brave acts like more of a mantra than a title track or album name for the Austin foursome. Where …And Girls Club had edge and swagger — perhaps even a decided indifference to perfection and professionalism — Be Brave has a more mellow and tame persona. This departure in sound and album aesthetic will definitely divide the room on whether the sophomore album was a step up or not.
Despite the new “direction”, there are still a few rockers. Title track “Be Brave” puts the Strange Boys in familiar haunts with Sambol squelching over twangy telecaster riffs with a little help from new member Jenna E. Thornhill DeWitt, who joined the band from L.A. punk outfit, Mika Miko. She contributes a brazen sax solo that is so overblown, it borders on the verge of irony — a small misstep in an otherwise great song. “Night Might” also echoes sentiments from their debut with driving, bluesy rock into sedated half-time codas.
Aside from those two tracks, though, the shift in sound apparent, especially on the opening two songs where the Boys (and girl) put forth a couple of mid-tempo, Velvet Underground, country-toned shuffles. “A Walk on the Bleach” has a gaunt opening where Sambol narrates his skewed offering over dreamy finger picking. He intones in a near mumble, “Oh, I’m going back to Africa/ gonna sell me a man/ come on down to the promised land/ find me if you can.” While the words themselves seem inconclusive to anything he may be getting at, they, in some weird way, give a nod back to that notion of dirt and grime Americana so prevalent on their first album. It’s not so much a literal idea as it is an emotional place-holder. Other dusty gems such as soul stand out, “Between Us” and the Dylan-esque “Friday in Paris” lets the Boys explore other veins within with their typically garage sound.
After many listens, it becomes apparent that Be Brave has a division point, right after “Da Da”, the unlikely piano rock ballad, and aforementioned “Night Might”. The rest of the five songs, aside from the rumbling rhythm and riffing on “Laugh At Sex, Not Her”, reveal a stripped down Strange Boys, opting for lyric-driven acoustic song-work as opposed to their usually energetic and semi-haphazard rocking and rolling. It’s as if the same force behind …And Girls Club’s docile closer, “Deat and All the Rest”, mellowed out, got heartbroken, and wrote three more songs.
It starts with the mediocre “Dare I Say”, which sounds like the band just sat down and recorded the song with a piano in the corner and an upturned guitar in the lap in lieu of drums. “All You Can Hide Inside” follows part with a sing-songy, lullaby quality to it — acoustic finger picking with hummed semi-clergy like backing vocals to magnify the emotional looking glass through which Sambol muses, “You use me and you know it/ I use you when you need/ I love and you don’t believe it/ You don’t believe that I mean it.” Confidence and chutzpah was so high on …And Girls Club, we thought the Strange Boys were getting what they wanted, so it’s strange to see the opposite at the end of Be Brave.
The following Bowie-esque piano narrative, “The Unsent Letter”, continues Sambol’s skittish introspection, becoming somewhat audible in the vocal range so his cryptic, off-beat, yet relevant lyricism can ring true. Album closer, “You Can’t Only Love When You Want” — another acoustic ditty — remains parochial but interesting, cutting beats from the end of measures up to the harsh guitar tremolo in the chorus over which Sambol howls the heart-broken lines, “You can’t only love when you want to”.
To put out an album such as Be Brave that’s so different from the debut in so many ways can be both good and bad. As a music lover, you want to know that your bands aren’t operating under a formula — which the Strange Boys obviously aren’t. Be Brave’s brazen sensitivity and more deliberate songwriting is certainly a higher concept than …And Girls Club’s fuzzed-out rollicking, but at certain points, Be Brave feels somewhat hollowed out. That aside, the Strange Boys have definitely put out something fresh, antithetic and certainly worthy of the title, Be Brave.
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