Embrace

The life expectancy of bands caught up in the buzz of Britpop and the immediate post-Britpop movements was so short it left many bands and their second albums for dead. Embrace managed to get to a third album, but by then the buying public had lost interest in their melodramatic epic rock and moved on. Knowing this makes their astonishing comeback of last year all the more remarkable. Rescued by the pens of Coldplay, who wrote the uplifting "Gravity” for them, which became a massive hit in the UK, Embrace have been revitalised and in turn have written the album of their career. Forget what you think you know about this band — Out of Nothing is the kind of life-affirming album any fan of Coldplay or the like will do flips over. Produced by the renowned Youth (Killing Joke), Nothing is an album of grandeur that tugs on the heartstrings and doesn’t let go. From the opening moments of the tremendous "Ashes,” a song that builds into one of the year’s most powerful choruses, the McNamara brothers and co. lure you into their heartrending songbook. "Gravity” is every bit the triumph you’d expect; "A Glorious Day” spins a humble web of tenderness; and "Spell It Out” and "Someday” confirm they’re not stuck on making the epic power ballads, and can pump out something more sonically charged. Nothing is a welcome return, an even bigger surprise and hopefully the sign that this is the beginning of a good run for Embrace.