Album Review: This New Day - Embrace (4/5)

This New Day is the second album for Embrace v.2, not that the band lineup changed, but since their last album, 2004's Out of Nothing, the band has enjoyed a second wind to their career, which started off grandly in 1998 with their first album, The Good Will Out, but then faltered with their second and third releases. Out of Nothing put them back on track, and their current streak continues with This New Day.

Their sound doesn't deviate much from their last album--if anything, it's bigger, grander, more epic--as improbable as that sounds. If Coldplay was the muse for Out of Nothing, then U2 is the muse for This New Day, which is packed with stadium-ready numbers infused with full-throttle electric guitars, piano, string symphonies--even choirs--interspersed with "quiet" moments to allow the bigger moments even more drama.

And quiet moments are relatively few, as even the ballads, such as first single "Nature's Law," have so much going on in them that they hardly count as "quiet" songs. "Nature's Law" is a beautiful piano and orchestra-driven number that breaks into colossal choir-backed choruses. Even "I Can't Come Down, " a piano and stringes laden number that begins along the lines of Nothing's "A Glorious Day," manages to build itself up to bombastic proportions before the song ends. On other tracks, such as the opener "No Use Crying," "Target," or "The End is Near," the U2 influence is evident from the very first notes. "Target" sounds so much like U2 that it's a shock to hear Danny McNamara instead of Bono.

The big sound present on every track is not for everyone, and fans picked up from Out of Nothing may be disappointed that there isn't another low key moment like "Gravity" or "Looking as You Are" on this album. Those were Coldplay-esque tracks, quite trendy among British bands these days, but really not what Embrace is about. If longing for a day where you might stand in a big stadium swaying to the beat with your lighter (or cell phone) lofted above your head isn't for you, then neither is Embrace. This New Day is in several ways a realization of what this band is about--like it or not--marked by bombastic full-sounded rock numbers, and finally, good production values missing from earlier works.