You're not alone (Embrace) (LP 2472 - 2474)

Embrace  Drawn From Memory (CD, Virgin Records, 2000) *** 

Embrace  If You've Never Been (CD, Virgin Records, 2001) **** 

Embrace  Out Of Nothing (CD, Independiente Records, 2004) ****

Genre: Pop rock 

Places I remember: Slow Boat Records, The Warehouse

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Ashes (Out Of Nothing)

Gear costume: You're Not Alone, I Had A Time (Drawn From Memory); Wonder (If You've Never Been)

Active compensatory factors: I always think of Embrace as cousins to Coldplay and NZ band Evermore. Especially Evermore because of the similar harmonic pop sound and the brother thing.

Ashes is of course an anthem now. What a great song! But before that came Embrace's second and third albums.

Drawn From memory is quite a gutsy record - loads of jagged guitars. The songs have a nice range from ballads to rockier moments. Some of the songs have those anthemic choruses that remind me of Evermore.

Third album, If You've Never Been, is mostly a gentler set of sounds/songs. Wonder, the third track, is a case in point - anthemic but quieter than expected.

Their fourth album came a few years later. This is the most anthemic, boisterous one. It kicks off with Ashes and while that's the best song, there are plenty of other fine moments throughout.

Where do they all belong? Listening to these has made me keen to keep collecting their other albums. I realised how much I still liked their sound.