Sometimes it's not the sheen of perfection which we find truly rewarding. Often, rather the faults and flaws which contribute to something's overall beauty hold the key to our enticement; the insecurities, the idiosyncrasies, the little habits and follies which make us what we are, that give us the capacity to yield and receive love. With this in mind it's fitting that Embrace, a band who've often been misrepresented as an exercise in Oasis-lite bluster yet promise so much more, have made a record befitting this description - a collection of moods and feelings, beautifully human yet humanly flawed - rather than a breast-beating attempt at stodgy perfection. They've made an album, not a statement. That the LP opens with "Over", the grandest statement of intent you're ever likely to hear, is curiously fitting in many ways. It's not so much a nod to the rest of the record as closing the book on the opulent anthems of their past, picking up with the ethereal the final word in towering sadness, as the song unfurls from its acoustic cocoon into a multi-part symphony of heartbreak, enriched with a swell of harp strings and strangulated guitar by way of a sumptuous middle-eight carried aloft a weave of vocal harmonies and blissful organ. As a collection of songs "If You've Never Been" is immeasurably more fluid and refined than previous work. Extrapolated from the mellow acoustic timbre of their last LP as opposed to its more raucous moments, Embrace's third outing is the sound of a band who's only pressure manifests in their desire to make music to warm the soul, their only vice that next twist of melody. "If You've Never Been In Love With Anything" thus stands as their finest pop moment to date, a bevy of musical ideas from the stomp-brass Sly Stone intro to joyous West Coast harmonies and the finest Brian Wilson moment he never set to wax. Simon and Garfunkle are lovingly invoked on "I Hope You're Happy Now", whereas elsewhere the brothers' passion for The Flaming Lips shines through in the paired-down "Many Will Learn". However it's in the more heartstrings-by-numbers moments we find the ties are weakest. "Make It Last" is a pretty melody let down by its utter predictability and "Hey, What You're Trying To Say" every inch as clunky alt-country its title suggests. A recurring theme for "If You've Never Been" might be defined as a sense of lessons learnt. This is as much evident in production as in the songs themselves with a "less is more" approach to arrangement helping to retain an oceanic sense of space, one that lesser bands might clutter with instrumental flotsam. Again this is reflecting in the more focused lyrical content of the record, Danny seemingly overpowering his demons in its final approach, eventually exorcising them with a rolling piano lullaby and the notion that "Happiness Will Get You In The End". "Satellites" closes the album in a positive light, with the promise of redemption in the air and as perfect an encapsulation of being in love you're ever likely to hear. It's perhaps lyrically and musically their finest moment to date; shimmering like the north star and as perfectly formed, a jewel in the crown fit to grace any of your favourite records. And in this lies the crux of the matter. The subtleties may be lost on some, others may not be prepared to give "If You've Never Been" the space it needs to breathe and settle - gone altogether is the full-on aural assault of their first record, this is an album that needs to permeate your consciousness in order for its value to be truly appreciated. And it's an astonishing achievement. What's most apparent, however, is that at last this band are beginning to grow the clarity of vision they need to deliver the songs they always promised, in the way we always wanted them.
