• Band / Artist : Brave Captain
• Genre : Pop / Rock / Electronic
• Sample Track Download : I Don’t Know Any Better
• Buy CD : N/A
• Free Digital Download : Download
• Rating : 8.5 out of 10

Although the name Brave Captain may not mean anything to anyone not already a fan, the name Martin Carr, might be more familiar as the man behind that monster group of the 90’s the Boo Radleys. The “Wake Up” album brings back particular memories, of staying at a friends house and hearing the next door neighbor singing “Wake Up Boo!” at 8am on weekend mornings from his garden. Not the best thing to hear when you are recovering from a hang-over. Actually it’s not the best thing to hear at anytime, but enough of the neighbor’s naff voice.

Brave Captain is a slight departure from the Boo Radleys sound I’m familiar with (just the one “Wake Up” album), but maybe it’s just Martin Carr coming through more in the music, it’s hard for me to decide as I haven’t heard too much of either, but I get the feeling Martin is a big electronic music fan and this does reflect strongly in the music. Before you sigh and decide to move onto something else, this isn’t just an electronic album, this is more a pop/rock album with a hint of electronic. It’s actually very well done and enhances, rather than overshadows the songs.

Although comprising of only 8 tracks, they do total up to nearly 40 minutes of music. The album opens very strongly, both musically and vocally with the track “Whatever Happened to the Fingertipsaint”. Track 2, “I Don’t Know Any Better” brings back a hint of that old Boo Radley sound. Track 3 “Punk Rock” has some of those retro sounds, that I’ve heard in a few songs of late. You know, the sounds like old 80’s arcade games. This is an interesting song, that rambles and repeats, but I’m a particular fan of this style of song. I won’t go into each song individually, but the final song, “Jerusalem” is an interesting song, with it’s white boy rap style and intelligent lyrics, but I won’t mention the elephant.

Conclusion : This is an extraordinary album and one that deserves some widespread recognition. To top it all off, the whole album is available for free, all you need to do is submit your email address to get download instructions. It doesn’t get much better than that.