The Bravery

Endicott and keyboardist John Conway were central to the project that developed into a five-piece with Michael Zakarin, Mike Hindert and Anthony Burulcich. The Bravery appeared in 2005, with An Honest Mistake, Fearless and Unconditional providing different entrances into the same tightly organised instrumental world. Guitar and synthesiser often worked as complementary rhythmic parts rather than as competing claims about the band's identity.

The debut could be immediate without sounding entirely comfortable. Endicott's phrasing gave the songs an anxious edge, while the arrangements left the principal melodic figures clear enough to carry into a club setting. The record's tension came from that fit between a carefully controlled surface and a singer who seemed to be pushing against it.

The Sun and the Moon followed in 2007 with producer Brendan O'Brien. Believe and Time Won't Let Me Go gave the music a broader, less narrowly electronic setting. The second album put more weight on the band playing and the development of a melody over time, making the change audible even when the basic voice and rhythmic instincts remained familiar.

Stir the Blood arrived in 2009, including Slow Poison and Adored. The three-album sequence offers different proportions of the same ingredients: melodic bass movement, an emphatic beat, electronic colour and a vocal with a rougher emotional surface. The best performances make those ingredients answer one another, so a small instrumental figure can create as much tension as a line sung at full force.