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- Date Released: January 1, 1987
- Genre: Alternative/Punk
- Style: Emo, Punk
- Label: Dischord Records
"No compromise, no co-opt/ No giving out or giving up or giving in."
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We Say...
Embrace featured some of Ian MacKaye's most vivid and direct (and frequently angry) sermons against greed, delusion and self-destruction, backed by tight, tuneful and slightly psychedelic punk. The quartet's short run was roughly contemporaneous with Rites of Spring's, but this album was shelved for about two years after the group's unhappy breakup. As Michael Hampton's guitar swirls around the words, MacKaye delivers the definitive Dischord statement of purpose: "No compromise, no co-opt/ No giving out or giving up or giving in." Not all the lyrics are MacKaye's, by the way: bassist Chris Bald, who named the band, had a major role in shaping its sensibility.
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They Say...
The band's one album, taken from two separate mid-'80s recording sessions, finds the fusion of Faith's instrumentalists and Minor Threat's singer -- Ian MacKaye himself, older brother of Faith's singer Alex -- a successful enough blast of post-hardcore. It's no surprise per se that MacKaye wanted to push himself more strongly in future; compared to Fugazi, Embrace is fine but nowhere near as gripping or inventive. As a vehicle for his righteous, cutting lyrics and strong voice, though, it's more than fine. With engineering help from the legendary Don Zientara, everything's well-recorded and produced, MacKaye clearly cutting through the heavy band crunch. Interestingly, the instruments that come through the best are Ivor Hanson's drums, a neat switch around from the usual domination via guitar. Not that Michael Hampton's work sounds weak or poor; if anything, he brings a sharp turn-of-the-'80s U.K. style to fore, with the understated inventiveness of John McGeoch's early work in Magazine and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Consider his exuberant performance on "Dance of Days," both fiery and just pretty enough. Compared to both Faith's and Minor Threat's work in general, Embrace tries for something a touch poppier and a little less immediately frenetic, like a pause for breath after a full-on rampage. MacKaye's lyrical aim dwells as much on personal concerns and a search for courage as much as anything, continuing the themes of earlier efforts as "Look Back and Laugh." "Building" revolves around self-accusations of failure, while the shimmering, reverb-touched drive of "Do Not Consider Yourself Free" urges vigilance with the realization that "there are others held captive." It's not quite the birth of emo -- if anything, Rites of Spring found themselves saddled with that peculiar honor -- but it's easy enough to imagine more than a few '90s bands taking the words as holy writ.
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| 01. |  |
Give Me Back |
2:30 |
|
| 02. | |
Dance of Days |
2:16 |
|
| 03. | |
Building |
1:58 |
|
| 04. | |
Past |
1:53 |
|
| 05. | |
Spoke |
1:59 |
|
| 06. | |
Do Not Consider Yourself Free |
2:23 |
|
| 07. | |
No More Pain |
3:11 |
|
| 08. | |
I Wish I |
2:10 |
|
| 09. | |
Said Gun |
2:10 |
|
| 10. | |
Can't Forgive |
2:31 |
|
| 11. | |
Money |
2:37 |
|
| 12. | |
If I Never Thought About It |
2:31 |
|
| 13. | |
End of a Year |
2:36 |
|
| 14. | |
Last Song |
2:39 |
|
| 15. | |
Money |
2:48 |
|
| 16. | |
Dance of Days |
2:41 |
|
16 Total Tracks, 38:53 Total Length
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Credits
- Embrace - Producer // Embrace - Main Performer // Don Zientara - Engineer // Edward Janney - Producer // Ian MacKaye - Vocals // Ian MacKaye - Producer // J. Robbins - Design // Leslie Clague - Photography // Ivor Hanson - Drums // Chris Bald - Bass // Chris Bald - Drawing // Cynthia Connolly - ? // Mike Hampton - Guitar // Kathy Cashel - Typesetting
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