Back in 2006 – before the recession, bankers’ bonuses and a coalition government – England were looking forward to the World Cup in Germany and the band of the moment had ‘the world at their feet’.
Embrace, the five-piece Yorkshire outfit with Coldplay’s ability to churn out melodic pop-rock anthems but with a rawer, more authentic edge had just had their most productive year yet, giving some compelling elements to a year of everything English.
They had hit No. 2 with ‘Nature’s Law’, scored a number one album with ‘This New Day’ and had been asked to create the summer anthem that would propel England to World Cup glory.
‘World At Your Feet‘ did well in the charts but you suspected all along that Embrace’s hearts weren’t really in it. Now, at last, they have decided to poke their heads back above the parapet with a new album and tour.
‘Embrace’ opens with ‘Protection’, electro influenced and funky, dark and experimental but with glimmers of light that slice and strobe across the horizon of a dance-floor. It’s brooding, infectious and melodic, a great opening track, harmonised but not to the extent of being overdone or robotic, the human element to the track is always kicking, ticking, twitching.
‘In The End’, at the start, delivers a chiming guitar riff of angelic semblance; channelling emotions of love and lust into a strong-willed pop ballad. A fantastic, fat bass line fights under the surface of deeply delicate vocals sung by Danny McNamara; not aggressive but not totally useless. The drums clutter along carefully and the keyboard constructions still fizz and fizzle, shining a light in the blackest of bedrooms.
‘Refugees’ allows the technological and techno-tainted side of the band’s latest offering to open itself up. The motorised drum pulses seem to give away the most meteoric of songs; an emotional falsetto soaring out of sight with genuine authority and affirmation, the return to earth from heaven is safe. Shivery and chilling synth spikes glisten below a swell of musical invention.
‘I Run‘ introduces a romantic face to the band; the face perhaps people remember and judge them by. The post-Britpop soldiers (scapegoats) who could only produce pop songs that pleased the fans who wanted the band stood behind a graffiti-riddled wall looking like miserable fuckers. However, it’s anything but.
It’s a masterclass of alt-rock perfection; capable of standing aside the likes of Coldplay or Arcade Fire with great ease; the oscillating levels of euphoria don’t stall the album’s so far superb attack on the attention span of all those men in Adidas trainers and vintage England football shirts. The bass is loud and the heartstrings firmly pulled like a moment of confession to your own reflection; repeat and be pleased.
Noticeable by now is the clever and often quiet breath-taking lyrical capacity of their frontman; not so much a rapping-survivor-of-Lad-culture-got-smart nor reciting lines and lines of alluring and playful poetry. No, they’re rhymes and riddles which match the band’s new-found confidence as serious contenders in a stadium of bullfighters disguised as kids messing around with a keyboard or two in their bedroom, ‘You took all of my narcissist lies that I need to survive’, being just one of the many cartoonish and affecting results of when pen met paper.
‘Quarters’ is very house; the keyboards bubble and throb darkly, voices blurred by a multitude of gorgeous effects that make it weirdly so much clearer than without. Wild and primal, growling and growing as though angels are preparing their wings to take flight through the sky.
‘Self Attack Mechanism’ provides something more gutsy and heavy. A gritty and gnarly guitar riff, mechanical drum stabs open the wound where the heart is located, bringing to mind ‘Journal For Plague Lovers‘ period Manic Street Preachers, or even the Psychedelic Furs or Jesus and Mary Chain gone cutting edge, gone crystal clear. The bass breakdown a fantastic treat, overloading with intense electro-rock mastery.
The only metaphors that come close to describing what this album is in terms of epic bravery and heartfelt aura would only be a downer on the album itself. It’s grandiose, futuristic, formulated. It’s a kiss during the eclipse, the sensation of more than one painkiller taking effect after an injury. A gust and gush of midnight breeze that could carry any lost soul home.
See what we mean? It’s simply excellent.