Alternative icons Embrace are back with their first studio album in four years, Avalanche. Mainstays of the indie scene for almost three decades, this new release is their ninth LP, coming 28 years after the burst onto the scene in 1998 with their renowned debut album The Good Will Out. With their latest effort here, they prove they still have all that same energy for music that has carried them throughout their career, now matched by an even greater self awareness of how good they really are.
The album opens with Stop. Straight away you feel that classic Embrace mixture of melody and emotion which has defined their music for so many years, that ability to merge raw feeling into their sound which has never left them, and it is just as present as ever.
The tracks seem to melt into each other at points, lifting and falling in tempo within the songs throughout, but always meticulously put together. The way the opener seems to bleed into its follow up Road To Nowhere which then brings a greater energy and a real anthemic quality to kickstart the album solidifies their reputation as perfectionists.
Frontman Danny McNamara has described Avalanche as the bands “most candid, open and raw work to date”, and it’s hard to disagree with that summation. There’s always been an undeniable honestly which has run through his lyricism, but here it feels even more pronounced.
That rawness McNamara speaks of reaches its pinnacle of this album with Deny. An almost painfully honest and emotion driven tale of heartache, he conjures up all of that wonderful storytelling ability he has and pours his heart into a track which leaves you simultaneously hurting and also wanting to hear it again immediately. This sums up the real power of Embrace as they can have you switching between belting our choruses and hitting you with a track like this repeatedly over the course of an LP in the way very few others can, and they have definitely not lost that ability.
2026 marks 30 years since the band’s formation, and as well as this album they also have a sold out hometown show at Halifax’s Piece Hall this weekend to celebrate its release, and there’s some tracks in here that seem made to slot straight into their live sets. Pure O is one of those. An overall more chaotic sound full of rapturous drumming and heavy riffs serve to remind us that they’re not just a band who produce singalongs, but they can still turn it up too.
The album comes to a close with The Power. A brilliantly reflective piece full of love and grace, it feels like the perfect way to bring a real rollercoaster to an end. Once its last few notes have ceased, you find yourself wondering how a band who have already achieve so much over such a long period of time are still capable of surprising you with their ability.
Avalanche is an album full of elegance. It’s far from just another album from a well travelled band. It’s a culmination of everything they have done over the last thirty years. It still has everything that saw them fire themselves to the forefront of peoples minds so long ago, but it now combines with a matureness that takes it to a whole new level. Avalanche is a masterpiece.
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