Embrace s/t LP

Embrace s/t LP

"Embrace was made up of Ian MacKaye (who was previously the bassist of the Teen Idles, the singer of Minor Threat and Skewbald/Grand Union, did side projects in Egg Hunt and Pailhead and now plays guitar and sings half the songs in Fugazi and also co-owns Dischord Records) and three of the five members of Faith: Michael Hampton (previously of SOA, Faith and Skewbald/Grand Union and later of One Last Wish) on guitar, Ivor Hanson (previously of Faith) on drums and Chris Bald (previously of Faith and later of Ignition) on bass. Faith was another of those early Dischord hardcore bands and featured Alec MacKaye (Ian's brother) on vocals, who is, contrary to popular belief, the guy on the cover of Minor Threat's complete discography. They called in quits in '83 and Ian recruited three of the members to form Embrace in '85. Embrace only lasted a year, but they recorded this excellent album before they fell apart, which was not actually released until '87 and was recently remastered and re-issued with two bonus tracks. I've never heard the original issue, so I don't know if it sounds any better, but the bonus tracks are cool, even if they're just alternate version of songs already on here.

I'm a tad biased towards anything Ian does, seeing as how he single handedly changed the way I view music, but that's a story for another time. The point here is that this album is fabulous. If you're expecting fast and furious old school hardcore ala Minor Threat or more abstract post-hardcore ala Fugazi, you're going to be disappointed. What we have here is some mid-tempo punkish rock, but with a twist. Michael Hampton's guitar work really gives this album a unique sound. Refusing to stick to simple power chords, he instead concentrates of coming with much more unorthodox and much more creative melodies. The only down side to this is that you tend to not really notice them at first, due to the fact that they're somewhat low in the mix and sometimes you don't even notice that they're there. But if you listen closely, you'll find some really interesting stuff going on. The drums move along nicely enough with some cool fills and the bass work is a lot more complicated and interesting than you're going to hear in the average punk/hardcore record and it never falls into the easy trap of just playing the same thing as the guitar. The song here are incredibly catchy, but not in the typical way. The hooks aren't incredibly obvious, they're far more subtle and so you don't hear them at first. But after a few listens, you become addicted and realize just how clever and catchy the songs are. Not to mention just how fun it is to sing along to." - Hamish / Punknews.org