About a month ago Embrace released their seventh album ‘Love Is A Basic Need’. To this point of 2018 I would say it is the best album released so far this year. As a result, I was rather looking forward to seeing the band take the album on the road. I went to check them out on the opening night of the tour at Glasgow’s O2 Academy a few weeks after the album’s release.
They opened with a new track, ‘Wake Up Call’, which felt like the perfect opening and was actually the track I was hoping they would open with. The performance sounded huge and right away I was struck by how good frontman Danny McNamara’s voice sounded. As the opening song, this was received by the crowd as if it was an old classic. It was then followed by a run of actual old classics, ‘All You Good Good People’, ‘Nature’s Law’, ‘Follow You Home’ and my favourite Embrace song ‘Come Back To What You Know’. These all brought massive singalongs from a jubilant crowd. The band were on top form and the Glasgow audience lapped it up.
‘Rabbit Hole’ from the new record was up next with a stirring performance before guitarist Richard McNamara stepped up to take over lead vocals on another new song, ‘Where You Sleeping’. I think this might be my favourite ever Richard-sung Embrace track, it builds brilliantly from a soft ballad to pounding bass and drums reminiscent of the backing sound used on the band’s previous self-titled record. Not content with blowing us away with this though Richard went on to roll out an epic rendition of ‘Refugees’ from the aforementioned album.
Danny triumphantly strode back onstage after this, the sign of a man who knows he’s having a good night. Old hits ‘Someday’ and ‘One Big Family’ were rolled out before the title track of the new album, ‘Love Is A Basic Need’. I had previously seen Embrace perform this song live in Edinburgh in late 2016 but it felt different this time around. At that point it had been a relatively low key stand alone single that not everyone seemed to know, but that has all changed. Everyone knew it and it sounded massive. Danny teased the crowd during the introduction to ‘Save Me’ next, hinting that they were all too old to jump during the song, luckily they weren’t, even if they took some coaxing! As one of the younger members of the crowd I was glad to see everyone still getting into the spirit of it.
The beautiful ‘Gravity’ drifted along next before ‘Ashes’ brought the set to a grandstanding close. For years now I have thought this was one of Embrace’s best live songs, and this show was no different. An absolutely outstanding version of the song, with the whole band in perfect sync.
At the beginning of their encore the band debuted a new song live, ‘All That Remains’. You would never have guessed it was their first live performance of it though as it was truly phenomenal, arguably the best song of the night. I was quite astonished by how good this track was. I had previously thought it was one of my favourite songs on the album but now think it’s one of the best things I’ve heard all year. The exciting ‘Protection’ bounced along to add a bit of pace and jumping to the encore. An interesting selection to play in amongst the slow songs but it worked a treat.
Scottish singer Kerri Watt joined the band to sing on the new song ‘Never’ for what was a rather beautiful rendition. With Kerri’s vocals matching perfectly with Danny’s it made for a great duet. Both Danny and Richard were on great form all night, prompting many fans and Danny himself to say it was the best he’d sung in over ten years!
As ever, the title track from the band’s debut album ‘The Good Will Out’ brought the show to a close with a chorus of ‘la la la’s’ from the crowd. A top class gig to match a top class album. Embrace are back and they’re the best band in Britain right now. Danny promised they will be back next year to tour ‘The Good Will Out’, potentially at Barrowland. I will definitely be there.
Setlist:
Wake Up Call
All You Good Good People
Nature’s Law
Follow You Home
Come Back to What You Know
Rabbit Hole
Where You Sleeping
Refugees
Someday
One Big Family
Love Is a Basic Need
Save Me
Gravity
Ashes
———————————-
All That Remains
Protection
Never
The Good Will Out