Embrace are in an insidious position at the moment: caught between the fallout of Brit Pop and the rise of bright, shiny pop, they tread a path strewn with booby-traps. Do they continue to come on like a nicer, more polite version of Oasis, or do they cut off their hair, discard their woolly jumpers and flared jeans and bring in professional songwriters and dance routines?
Judging by the reaction to the west Yorkshire band on Tuesday night, the public want hare-brained guitars over hair gel. Once again in such a consumer-led market as pop, the customer is right. Embrace might look like the student-type next door, but when they rock they are transformed. Lead singer Danny McNamara (his father is from Dublin, wouldn't you know) has all the winsome features of a boy scout, but his songs ache with a vulnerability that blustery, mouthy Oasis have never got close to. Top Ten hit singles such as All You Good Good People, Come Back To What You Know and My Weakness Is None Of Your Business are showcased with as much drive and spit as any rock band currently faking sincerity.
The band's ace card is their facility to combine cracking guitar music with melodic, anthemic tunes. On songs such as Save Me and Yeah You, the band sound like other people (Blur, for example) but manage to salvage any unfair comparisons by virtue of their occasionally drab, occasionally exemplary notion of what constitutes a great rock song.
