Embrace (UK): reviews, highlights and essential albums

The Profile

Embrace are an English rock band from West Yorkshire led by brothers Danny (vocals) and Richard McNamara (guitar), with Steve Firth (bass), Mike Heaton (drums) and Mickey Dale (keyboards). They debuted with The Good Will Out (1998), followed by Drawn From Memory (2000) and If You’ve Never Been (2001). Out of Nothing (2004) featured the Chris Martin–penned single Gravity; This New Day (2006) and the England World Cup song World at Your Feet kept them in the spotlight. After a hiatus they returned with Embrace (2014), Love Is A Basic Need (2018) and How To Be A Person Like Other People (2022).

Chris Martin wrote the single Gravity; “World At Your Feet” was used for England’s 2006 World Cup; Richard McNamara produced Starsailor’s All This Life; Love Is A Basic Need was recorded at Magnetic North Studios in Halifax.

Six DeBaser reviews trace Embrace from their 1998 debut through comebacks and a 2022 release. Critics spotlight the band’s epic ballads, U2/Coldplay affinities, and Danny McNamara’s emotive voice. Key singles like Gravity, Ashes and Nature’s Law recur as touchstones. A steady thread: crescendos, big choruses, and warm production.

Notable Quotes

❝ Embrace also reach their eighth album, this time making us wait considerably less.

❝ Opened by the lead single "The Finish Line," a fully realized Embrace piece (subdued piano accompanying Danny McNamara's warm voice, progressively increasing intensity culminating in an airy chorus sung with pathos, with an accompanying controlled explosion of guitars and strings)

❝ Embrace, or "hug".

❝ For those who love brit-pop, it’s an album not to be missed, also because after the less fortunate Drawn from memory, Embrace return to the levels of The god will out.