Braveyoung’s ‘Misery and Pride’ Refuses to Let You Go

Though I sometimes have a tendency to still think of Braveyoung as the band that formerly was Giant, eight years — twice the length that Giant was an active group — have passed since they changed not only names, but styles. Braveyoung’s 2009 record, Bloom, saw the members abandoning their heavy-hitting roots in order to discover something more quiet — and they were better off for it. For as good as Giant’s work was (and it’s damn good), their efforts as Braveyoung have really showcased the group's compositional talents in a way that Giant never could — and maybe never desired to.

With the announcement of Misery and Pride, the band’s second full-length and sixth overall release, Braveyoung have created, if not their best work yet, their most emotionally resonant. The fourth of seven songs, “Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go,” is a melancholic track, but one that rings with a real beauty. It’s cinematic, but without ever feeling like it's owed a debt to any strict visuals or repetition, in a way that can often mar the listening of soundtrack compositions. It feels both modern and classical in the same breath, and, most refreshing of all, it fails to follow any contemporary trends in music. Braveyoung, simply put, are Braveyoung — and Misery and Pride is perhaps the purest representation of that to be witnessed.

Misery and Pride is set be released via the Flesner on March 24, with the band preparing to hit the road again for the first time in three years, and the first time since founding member Isaac Jones’ life-threatening accident in 2015.