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Rating: Embrace, or "hug".
And the music of the band led by the McNamara brothers sounds just like that, like a warm and enveloping hug that transports you to a world made of melodies sometimes delicate, dreamy, and melancholic, other times vigorous, captivating, and epic.
In every album of the band, this alternation of emotions is evident, and it is the same in this "This New Day", the latest work in chronological order from the British group, arriving only a year and a half after the success of the previous "Out Of Nothing" and especially the single "Gravity", a balladic gem written by "his omnipresence" Chris Martin.
Britpop, rock, some gospel elements, just enough melancholy and choruses to shout to the sky alternate in an overwhelming vortex of engaging and never too predictable melodic glimpses, even if the taste for the winning refrain at all costs slightly undermines the excellent overall picture. It is precisely when this last "flaw" is missing that the most interesting things are heard, especially in this "This New Day", where Embrace dare a little more compared to the latest studio attempts. "Exploding Machines", for example, does not start very well with its meticulous echoing of the sound proposed by the penultimate Coldplay ("X & Y"), but then develops a not at all banal plot where the usual attention of the McNamara brothers for the insistent hyper-sugary melody fortunately wanes. The same goes for "Target", where very strange (for the genre of reference) guitar/dance inserts are incorporated, or "Even Smaller Stones", perhaps the most interesting thing produced by Embrace in the last eight years. Here, the sound becomes more challenging and sophisticated, without exaggerating or shaking too much, but surprisingly quite a bit.
It's good also when the now seasoned melancholic soul of the five comes shamelessly to the surface: "I Can’t Come Down", the heart of the album placed in the middle of the tracklist, is a ballad for which at least seventy percent of melodic pop rock bands would give both upper limbs. "Nature’s Law" works as a single (it is the most successful piece in their homeland of the group’s career so far), but ultimately it feels too ingratiating (even though the stadium-like chorus is a delightful tease), whereas "Celebrate" vents in the chorus all the repressed admiration of the British band towards the most emphatic and pompous Bono.
Finally worth noting is the reissue of the album with the insertion at track number four of the second single "World At Your Feet", a cheerful (?) little song chosen by the British Football Federation as the official soundtrack for the English national team at the German World Cup in 2006.
Key tracks: "I Can’t Come Down", "Exploding Machines", "Even Smaller Stones"
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 No Use Crying (03:43)
I won't let you break
You'll live to fight another day.
All so you feel safe
I'd take a bullet jump a speeding train.
I kick to stay afloat and end this sad song on a happy note
No one else came close to making my heart stop
So you gotta wipe your eyes
Cos there's no use crying
I Know your sick of trying
But you know your day is gonna come
Wipe your eyes
Cos there's no use crying
I Know your sick of trying
But you know your day is gonna come
But you know one day we'll run away
And they will hunt and chase
I will turn this place
Into a playground once again
Say you'll come with
I will try to make you all feel safe
I Know you gotta wipe your eyes,
Cos there's no use crying,
Know your sick of trying
but you know your day is gonna come,
Know your day is gonna come,
Know your day is gonna come,
Know your day is gonna come
You've gotta wipe your eyes
Cos there's no use crying
I Know your sick of trying
But you know your day is gonna come
Wipe your eyes
Cos there's no use crying
I Know your sick of trying
But you know your day is gonna come
Know your day is gonna come
Know your day is gonna come
03 Target (04:28)
You flicker like a mile high neon sign
Hot and cold so no one knows your mind
I was gonna let you win but I won't break
For an hour I held the moon on a string
Now this moment left till the world begins
Everything is possible its beautiful
When will you wake up see what's happening
Right before your eyes no
If you must blow hot and cold take a swing
You will hit the target every time
So I look before I leap and I see
Wolves are at the door with my enemies
I was gonna let them in but then you say
Watch the stars defeating my enemy
It's too far for them to bring you to me
And everything is possible it's beautiful
When will you wake up see whats happening
Right before your eyes no
If you must blow hot and cold take a swing
You will hit the target every time
When will you wake up see whats happening
Right before your eyeyeOhhh
If you must blow hot and cold take a swing
You will hit the target every time
I reached the waters edge
I wished that I could hold
Everybody's breath until
No one has any left
You take me to the edge
You're being called to follow
The foot prints that I left behind
Listen up I'll sing to you how I can
Out of luck now time is all that we have
Think about yourself and you'll kill all you love
I know our makers love all the mess the make
Out of sight behind these eyes you'll stay
Where everything is possible
It's beautiful
When will you wake up see whats happening
Right before your eyeyeOhhh
If you must blow hot and cold take a swing
You will hit the target every time
05 Sainted (04:18)
I've always been wholehearted,
But it would take a saint to understand,
And so they had me martyred so I'd find out.
The sky explodes above us,
And I know there's no other above you,
I only touched the surface but I found out.
And I won't leave before an army makes me run,
Big fish eat the littles ones,
You and me we're sainted,
Don't let them break your soul.
The chemicals have started,
They stop me finding anybody new,
Why was I your target, do I stand out.
The stars were shining for us,
And I know there's no other above you,
I'm rolling with the punches, I won't lie down.
And I won't leave before an army makes me run,
Big fish eat the littles ones,
You and me we're sainted,
Don't let them break your soul.
Roll the dice, cause nothing's ever sure in life,
Even though the stakes are high, we're already sainted.
You're the first, I know it cause I'm fit to burst,
I know it cause my halo hurts, I feel like I've been sainted.
And I won't leave before an army makes me run,
Big fish eat the littles ones,
You and me we're sainted,
Don't let them break your soul.
And I won't leave before an army makes me run,
Big fish eat the littles ones,
You and me we're sainted,
Don't let them break your soul.
06 I Can't Come Down (04:13)
When I lost you, I played a part I never really knew,
Letting go, is the best thing I could do.
Before you turn that knife, you have to say you'll cut me down
And letting go is effortless now
You found me out.
But I can't come down, anymore
I'm here till you say it isn't so.
I'm in hope
And I can't come down, anymore.
No I'm on a road I've never known.
And there's no way home.
I found something, I would die from now
I don't feel fit to live.
Are you the one it finishes with?
I spend my days thinking of you prayin you would think of me.
Was I wrong to let you just leave me?
And I can't come down, anymore
I'm here till you say it isn't so..
I'm in hope
And I can't come down anymore.
No I'm on a road I've never known.
On my ownnnnnnnnnnnnn....
And I wanna know, what things you see up close in lies, they dissapear
And I wanna know, if I was just a waste of time for you
I want you to say... if you're with him alone, or someone new,
But I can't come down, til you do.
But I can't come down, anymore.. until you say it isn't so.
I'm in hope.. And I can't come down, anymore.
No I'm on a road I've never known.
On my ownnnnnnnnnnnnn....
And I I can't come down, anymore.
No I'm on a road Ive never known.
And there's no way home.
07 Celebrate (03:33)
Birds end their song,
Only you compare,
Only you know where they're gone.
Clutch the final straw,
Break it in your hand,
No one understands it's yours.
Now don't let go, never let go again,
Now cause if you must go, won't you go down in flames.
Celebrate and everything will change,
You're swimming with the hook,
that's why everybody looks your way,
Celebrate and let those demons race,
You were never fake, nobody could take your place.
Can't make time stand still,
But you can make it run,
You can make it bend at will.
Sparks will light your trail,
You were never lost,
You were only off the scale.
Now don't let go, never let go again,
Now cause if you must go, won't you go down in flames.
Celebrate and everything will change,
You're swimming with the hook,
that's why everybody looks your way,
Celebrate and let those demons race,
You were never fake, nobody could take your place.
You were never fake, nobody could take your place.
You were never fake, and nobody can take that away.
08 Exploding Machines (05:17)
Bright explosion in the sky
A light that burned my eyes
Made me come alive
I thought I'd seen a sign
And prayed that I was right
As tears filled my eyes,
Blurred the scene
Now a sun inside me burns
Bleaching all my bones
And the rising smoke
Will carry me away,
To another place
I never lost my faith
Just my way
'Cause I exploded into life that day,
I'll never look back, I'll never look back
And no-one can take these feelings away,
I'll never go back, I'll never go back
Dark is flowing through the cracks
There is no turning back
Or giving into doubt
I held my candle out
For forty days and nights
Like a firefly
In the big black sky
'Cause I exploded into life that day,
I'll never look back, I'll never look back
And no-one can take these feelings away,
I'll never go back, I'll never go back
I'll make the river run with pictures that I'd take
As a dying sunspits colours in it's wake
Say you've seen enough
You'll only fan the flames
'Cause I exploded into life that day,
I'll never look back, I'll never look back
And no-one can take these feelings away,
I'll never go back, I'll never go back
Exploding Machines
Exploding Machines
Exploding Machines
09 Even Smaller Stones (04:28)
I know you hope the little people don't exist
I know you hope we'll fight and miss
I know you hope it's never gonna come to it
Now you know that you're at risk
When you set me up
Put me where I'd do most harm
And you tried your luck
And now it's time for you to learn
Cause I will break your rubble
Into even smaller stones
Yes, I will burst your bubble
And then laugh at what I've done
I know you'll fight for what I'm gladly offering
I backed them cause I knew you'd win
I know that we're all cousins under our skin
But now that doesn't mean a thing
[x2]
Cause I will break your rubble
Into even smaller stones
Yes, I will burst your bubble
And then laugh at what I've done
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Other reviews
By Adil
This New Day nominates Embrace to take (or at least share with Coldplay) the baton of representatives of Anglo-Saxon pop.
The McNamara brothers have that, but, fortunately for them, also a happy propensity to write highly engaging songs, halfway between the epic nature of U2 and the 'mainstream' intimacy of their friends Coldplay.
