Embrace

Embrace formed in Brighouse, West Yorkshire in 1993, brothers Danny and Richard McNamara at the core of a band that would spend the next decade making emotionally direct guitar music that sat somewhere between Britpop and the post-Britpop landscape. Danny McNamara's vocals — powerful, unguarded, occasionally overwhelming — gave the band a quality that set them apart from their more ironic contemporaries.

'The Good Will Out' (1998) was a strong debut — 'All You Good Good Friends', 'Come Back to What You Know', and 'My Weakness Is None of Your Business' were all excellent singles. The album reached number two and established Embrace as one of the more significant post-Britpop acts. The emotional register was higher than most of their contemporaries were comfortable with.

'Drawn from Memory' (2000) and 'If You've Never Been' (2001) were more uneven, but 'Out of Nothing' (2004) was a genuine triumph — 'Gravity', written with Chris Martin of Coldplay, became their biggest hit. The album reached number one. Embrace have continued to record and tour, their emotional directness remaining both their greatest strength and their most divisive quality.