ALBUM REVIEW: The Hope List – Lonely The Brave

From purgatory to regained relevancy – recent times have been a wild ride inside camp LONELY THE BRAVE. When vocalist David Jakes left the outfit on the cusp of Spring 2018, you felt that the quintet may be left to see out their days in the barren wasteland of being a ‘nearly’ band. The momentum carried with them off the back of debut record The Day’s War was all but curtailed within three years. 2016’s follow up attempt Things Will Matter‘s dark, ill-suited tone didn’t help – but the departure of Jakes, who had been a vital component in creating the bands sonic personality, felt like a critical hit.

It should be celebrated then that third effort The Hope List doesn’t just find LONELY THE BRAVE recapturing form, it portrays a satisfying revelation of potential fulfilled. Fragile, yet unapologetically optimistic: the band’s hearts rarely leave their sleeves for 40 minutes. In shrewd fashion, they steer away from scrapping their playbook here. The enigmatic choruses of Bound and Something I Said slot comfortably into the pre-existing LONELY THE BRAVE mould, while the skip in Bright Eyes‘ step mimics The Day’s War‘s Victory Line.

Chasing Knives, Keeper, and The Harrow are where you truly catch on to what the quintet have built though. At a time where, admit it: openly accessible rock is largely monotonous tripe, LONELY THE BRAVE have penned radio friendly numbers that have soul. Clean riffs, simplistic song structures, and climactic hooks can still catch on when they’re well written – who knew? But it’s the craft of this record that sits centre stage. There’s a rustic vulnerability to Open Door‘s reticent, opening guitar line, the vocal pitch changes on Distant Light feel purposefully fragile: The Hope List leaves itself open at your mercy constantly.

Vocalist Jack Bennett is as central to this as any other member, if not more so. Taking the mantle from his predecessor was always set to be a tall order – but no later than the records first chorus does he cement himself. Though the title track’s attempts of creating a leering, ominous atmosphere misses its mark – Bennett delivers, quite literally, everywhere else on The Hope List. From bellowing, passion soaked cries for belief, to Your Heavy Heart‘s difficulties in love – LONELY THE BRAVE could not have hoped to stumble across a more suitable voice.

Is it fair to call this LONELY THE BRAVE 2.0? Possibly, though this is more rejuvenation than reinvention. The Hope List is LONELY THE BRAVE sticking to their own rulebook, but executing it better than they ever have previously. Their former difficulties suddenly seem irrelevant, what matters is that they have delivered on what seems to have been waiting in the wings for five years now.

Rating: 8/10

The Hope List is set for release on January 22nd via Easy Life Records. 

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