Embrace
How To Be A Person Like Other People

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

In fact, only four years have passed since the previous "Love Is A Basic Need," which marked the band's return to their usual post-britpop offerings after the venture into more "lively" territories in the previous 2014 self-titled album. And with this new "How To Be A Person Like Other People," they definitively reposition themselves in that sector, recovering sounds and atmospheres that haven't been heard since the celebrated debut "The Good Will Out," or more recently, from that gem known as "Out Of Nothing."

The pounding piano of the second single "Death Is Not The End" (along the lines of the old hit "Ashes") opens a beautiful album, which, compared to its predecessor, relies less on the ballad format and steps on the accelerator with more determination in a couple of really well-executed episodes ("We Are It," the amazing "Run Away With Me"). But the indelible trademark of the McNamara brothers, namely the crescendo ballad with heartfelt singing and progressive explosion of sounds, soon emerges and makes a full impact in numbers like "Rubble" and "I Miss You."

Elsewhere, "Up" is a true love letter to the most epic U2, "Remember Me" is a crystal-clear piano and voice piece rivalling old gems laden with pathos like "I Can Come Down," while the lead single "The Terms Of My Surrender" takes its time (a good six and a half minutes) building a delicate crescendo from an insistent guitar intertwining.

The difference, as often happens in an Embrace album, is made by Danny McNamara's usual warm and heartfelt vocal performance, while the more assertive voice of his brother Richard shows its beauty in the wonderful finale of the aforementioned title track. Excellent production by Richard himself (already behind the controls for the previous album and for Starsailor's "All This Life").

Best track: How To Be A Person Like Other People