Today sees the release of “Love Is A Basic Need”, the seventh album from Yorkshire favourites Embrace. Coming two decades after our love affair started with the band and their debut album, ”The Good Will Out”, “Love Is A Basic Need” is packed with big sounding love songs. Now, during the course of the last twenty-odd years, Embrace have forged a friendship with that band we all love to hate, Coldplay, and there are plenty of moments where “Love Is A Basic Need” veers in that direction.
With a track listing that rolls through love song after love song, the likes of opener “The Finish Line” and the anthemic “Wake Up Call” are just two of a good number of high points on this album. Swaying from passionate ballads to bursts of indie pop, Embrace steer their sound somewhere down a path heading between U2 and Coldplay. Emotional, anthemic, haunting, “Love Is A Basic Need” may follow a similar pattern throughout but it shows Embrace can churn out powerful, heart-wrenching music with relative ease. As a fine example, “Rabbit Hole” finds the Yorkshire lads penning the kind of majestic ballad that builds into a gloriously euphoric climax.
The album flows effortlessly from the majestic “Rabbit Hole” to the gentler “Horseshoe In My Glove” before “My Luck Comes In Threes” sets this album up for its powerful finale. That finale sees the Yorkshire band concluding the album with the emotional title track and a gloriously dramatic end. “Love Is A Basic Need” may be full of moments where the name Coldplay springs to mind but don’t let that put you off this haunting, emotional collection of love songs.
Rating: 7/10
