da Betaray il ven set 24, 2004 8:31 am
Embrace - 'Out Of Nothing'
(Thursday September 23, 2004 5:27 PM )
Released on 13/09/04
Label: Independiente
That Embrace were considered challengers to Oasis circa 1997 seems vaguely bizarre now. Back at the scrag end of Britpop their qualifications (brothers, northern, terrace-style anthems) were enough to give you number one albums, an readymade fanbase and the front cover of "Select". By album number two they were already losing momentum and focus (anyone remember the kazoo solo in "Hooligan"?) and following the demise of Hut Records they've been labelless since 2001.
And yet there was always something endearingly human about Embrace, something that left you rooting for them, even as their world collapsed.
So, after what they'd been through, you think there'd be some bile and bite to their comeback. A detailed report of life on the way down. Unfortunately, a quick scan of their work-in-progress song titles ("Looking As You Are" , "Someday", "Keeping", "Glorious Day", "Near Life") reveals a band with little imagination beyond recycling 'meaningful' clichés. In Embrace's world there's always a "tide turning" or a "tidal wave that never breaks" and seemingly inexhaustible ways to describe ships sailing, lights shining and stones not being left unturned. A bit like New Labour: it's all verbs and hardly any nouns.
Combined with the sort of collective image that can depict only one emotion (mean, moody, last gang in town. Yawn) you seriously want to lie them down on a psychiatrist's couch, slap them with a wet fish and scream, "Guys, for god's sake, open up and say something!"
On CD:UK they look such personable lads, but put a camera in front of them and this strange, dull-but-worthy machismo comes over. Ask Danny McNamara the way to the bus stop and he'd probably answer with that cold, zombie-like stare of an Action Man. Look up 'repressed' in the dictionary and you'll see his cardboard cut-out scowling back.
Such apathy really detracts from the heartfelt nature of the music, which, produced by the anthemic hand of Youth, is mostly of the passionate, chest-thumping variety. Opener "Ashes" is as stirring as anything from their heyday, while "Glorious Day" shows admirable restraint - until a typically bombastic conclusion, anyway. With Chris Martin's "Gravity" they've even already been given a leg-up into the charts.
Martin has been in particularly benevolent mood in 2004, already giving away a top ten hit to Jamelia, and here he does the McNamara boys a similar favour, even if the result sounds like half a great track rather than a bona fide classic. You can picture Martin coming up with the killer 'lighters aloft' verse, but just getting stumped when it came to finding a fitting
chorus. Think "Slightly Beige" instead of "Yellow".
Still, for all their faults, it feels comforting to have Embrace back in the land of the living. Like The Charlatans, there's still something of the underdog about this band that drives people towards them. If they only let their guard down then maybe love could truly bloom.
by Adam Webb