Oh pretty boys who write pretty songs. Can there ever be enough of them? Well, yes actually. With their third offering, 'If You've Never Been', Embrace have finally decided to throw off the Oasis hairshirt and become soft rock troubadours.
Although this material is really not that far from the Verve's 'Urban Hymns' (or Richard Ashcroft's solo work), it is resolutely more cloying. Embrace appear to have become the bakers who can't stop frosting the wedding cake. Is this song soppy enough? No, let's add glided strings and marzipan coated vocals. Clearly, Danny McNamara is now terminally locked into heartbreak hotel (the penthouse suite judging by the sadness) and wants to tell the world about the empty pit where his heart used to be.
There is no denying that the entire album is played skilfully, with each track orchestrated within a inch of their cherished lives, but most are let down by excessively mawkish sentimentality. 'Over', with puppy love lyrics like 'there is never reason in your rhyme, I'm just trying to feel one last goodbye', makes you desperate for a dysfunctional love affair along the lines of Sid and Nancy.
Meanwhile, the very scary lyrics of 'Happiness Will Get You In The End' ("those tear stained letters you returned unread"? Danny! C'mon!) coupled with the lonely piano's tinkling are really too much for even those sucked in by the most magnetising schmaltz.
Perhaps the evident backlash against this album's syrupy contents is a reflection on too many jaded losers out there, so it should be said that there are some sugar-free tracks on offer. The single 'Wonder' is a bittersweet, uncomplicated jewel about being the last one to know, featuring Danny McNamara's trademark (and rather tiresome) 'la la la's. And 'Satellites' is like being smothered to death by a shower of rose petals - yeah, you can't breathe - but what a nice way to go.
However, if you are nursing a broken heart, this is your one-way ticket to gloomyville. Put it on, sit alone in your bedroom reliving all the things that went wrong and wave a disposable lighter in the air. See? Feeling better already.
Where this leaves Embrace, meanwhile, is a rather more depressing and acute reality.
