Much as indie bands like to think that they do not mature in the traditional Dire Straits/ Phil C*****s sense of the word, and forever retain that punk spirit which got them started in the first place this, sadly, is what appears to be happening chez Embrace at the moment. In the past we have always been willing to put up with Danny McNamara's wafer thin vocals and his band's ill-defined meandering melodies, because underneath it all they had an endearing naïcharm that found its voice most effectively in overblown 'Hey Jude' style, trad rock sing-a-longs such as 'The Good Will Out'.
'I Wouldn't Wanna Happen To You', however, the lastest offering from the band's 'Drawn From Memory' LP, represents a worrying turn down the path of musical mediocrity. Whilst it is by no means a bad song (the unobtrusive melody and neat organ riff are actually quite sweet in an elevator music kind of way) the fact is that whereas the rock barnstormer approach of Embrace's early work used to exude youthful arrogance, this vague and inoffensive tune seems content to exude nothing more than a slightly apologetic mundanity.
Whilst Embrace may fondly imagine that this more understated approach to their sound is merely a confirmation of their musical diversity, what it actually proves is that if you take away their triumphant rock songs, musically they appear to have little else to offer.
