The Bravest Man in the Universe is the twenty-seventh and final studio album by the American soul artist Bobby Womack.

The first song released from the album, "Please Forgive My Heart", was offered as a free download on XL Recordings's official website on March 8, 2012.

Womack became inspired to start writing music again, stating that "one day I was riding on the bus and I told my assistant to tell the driver to pull over and get my guitar and bring a pad and I wrote about 20 songs.

[13] The pair had recently worked together on Kinshasa One Two as part of DRC Music and Albarn had also contributed to Gil Scott-Heron's I'm New Here, which Russell had produced.

"[13] Damon Albarn revealed that on many occasions, he would give instrumental demos to Womack who would take them away outside studio hours and use them as a basis for writing lyrics.

"[10] On March 15, 2013 iTunes re-released the album under the moniker "The Expanded Edition" which features three new songs, "It's Been a Long Night", "Hold the River Down" and "Central Avenue", all of which were produced by Richard Russell and Damon Albarn.

"[17] Retox Magazine's reviewer Jack Flahavan described the album's sound as "a cocktail of the old school and the new, a meeting between tradition and futurism, poetically entwined to create a soundscape in a sphere of its own.

"[18] Simon Harper of Clash magazine, described "Please Forgive My Heart" as containing "paralyzing pain" as Womack "pleads over sparse piano and penetrating, warm beats".

[11] The album cover, photographed by Jamie-James Medina, features Womack's hand with his thumb twisted backward, a capability of some double-jointed individuals.

[20] Matthew Bennett of Clash described the album as "a beautiful snapshot in time" and "completely beguiling", stating that it "serves up history on a plate for us to devour.

You can feel the forces of time fall into formation as foreign auras rub in electric friction and the resultant sparks ignite a new musical canvas.

"[24] Neil McCormick of The Telegraph wrote that "there have been a lot of attempts to drag soul music into the future but it rarely works as brilliantly (if crazily) as this."

"[30] Nate Knaebel of Dusted Magazine described Womack's vocals as "wonderfully rough" and as "heart-wrenching as ever", and stated that "given his recent scrap with cancer, we should be thankful.

stated that in, what he perceived as "Russell's second attempt at re-contextualizing a grizzled African-American musical icon, the concept doesn't fare quite as well" as it does on I'm New Here.

[27] Dan Martin, writing for the NME claimed that "the only problem is that at times, it feels like all parties are a little intimidated by each other, stopping just short of going the whole way with the primal force that the best moments prove Womack is still capable of.

[35] Kevin Ritchie of Now claimed that "it's eminently clear these producers know exactly when to assert themselves and when to stay out of the soul legend's way to achieve the most captivating results possible" and that the album "fearlessly fuses the old – grizzled gospel and swampy blues – with new twitchy, thumping electronics to create something that's both inspiringly original and comfortingly familiar.

"[36] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone said that Womack sounds "at home testifying over coolly throbbing beats" and praised the album as "a classic sentiment updated for the era of drone attacks and wiretaps.