Well, after 15 years of that happening people should really start being more realistic about these things. That experimental Noel album where The Right Stuff is the most conventional song - never going to happen. It's not that Noel is being dishonest, people are just misinterpreting what he means when he says "experimental".

Has he really let you down, or do we as fans get too excited?

I'd argue that on occasion he has let us down. Back end of Dig Out Your Soul being the most obvious blemish to me.

If I did half of the moaning you guys do about being so disappointed, I'd find another artist, or another forum. Life is too short to spend it on an artist who disappoints you so much.

that got deep fast.

When you feel passionately about something it is often easier to see the flaws and be disappointed becuase you know the true potential. Kind of like marriage and family.

Je vous présente le nouveau beadyeyeunofficial!!

Coldplay's version is better.



Definitely agree with you about DFM, it's a fantastic album that showcases Embrace's versatility that was probably unmatched by any other band at the time. It baffles me that it wasn't a huge success. Though you're the expert on these marketing things, I suspect that since the public had tapped Embrace as "the next Oasis", they reacted negatively to the experimental weirdness of Hooligan! A real shame that talent like that can be overlooked.

Have no idea why Coldplay let this song go, I like Embrace (and DFM is a hidden gem) but Coldplay's version is much better - would have been great on X&Y.

Great post, very interesting and informative - didn't realise that The Good Will Out failed financially. If You've Never Been is just dull and you can tell they are going through the motions, but yeah, I love Wonder too. Im not too keen on This New Day - a few great tunes but all a bit samey and dead straight mainstream. Apart from those ones, I like all the other albums, and I love Drawn From Memory and Dry Kids B-Sides.

Amazing post here guigsysEstring, always thought that The Good Will Out was a commercial success cause if I remember correctly it broke the record for fastest-selling debut at the time!

And how would you characterise the commercial performance of their latest album? I seem to remember BBC radio 1 not adding Refugees to their playlists for some BS reason like "it's too dynamic", and because of that the album didn't perform as well. Do you have any insight on that? It seems that this band is always caught in the wrong place at the wrong time!

I've always considered all forms of "Gravity" to be generic and boring. I'm glad Coldplay moved on away from it. I'd rather have heard "A Ladder To The Sun" or a studio recording of "Pour Me". Very dark tune that last one. It's got edge.

mystoryisgory

The Good Will Out was indeed a commercial success in terms of sales volumes and it was a fast seller as a debut, going Gold on it's day of release (100,000 copies sold to retailers), although it didn't actually break the record. That award went to Robson & Jerome for breaking 2,000,000 copies of their debut in 42 days from 19th November to the year end 1995, and was the first successful comeback for Simon Cowell who had signed them directly to himself as producer (licensing them to RCA) after near bankruptcy in the music business in 1989 with Fanfare Records, who launched Sinitta. From this dishonourable springboard he launched or co-launched Five, Westlife and the Teletubbies before going on to work in multiple roles on Pop Idol, X Factor and Britain's Got Talent. 

Where it was problematic was the sheer amount of money spent that was needed to recoup not only the artist as is usually the case in record contracts against their royalty rates, but also against the record company's own profit margin which varies depending on wholesale prices but is always higher than the artist. An interview with the McNamara Brothers in 2005 states that Danny was still sharing a Halifax home with his parents, although Richard had come from his own place, but I understand they didn't make any real money from the initial success bar enjoying the advances on NY recordings and shoots, etc.- Guardian May 2005

The Radio 1 playlist issue would seem to me to be in line with BBC policy for that station- Robbie Williams and Green Day have both been mentioned as "not relevant" by Nick Grimshaw to his 15-29 year old demographic (despite being past 30 himself) and the then music controller Nigel Harding said similar of Green Day in 2013, both comments can be found here- BBC Entertainment . They tried to deny it was ageism with Madonna in 2015 using "musical quality and relevance to our audience" as excuses in that particular case- Guardian March 2015

Unfortunately for Embrace I suspect their age and the fact it had been their first album in eight years went against them with the BBC, added to the fact they were releasing on Cooking Vinyl, which whilst a respected independent label does not have a stable of major artists with which it can hold against stations with record, interview and feature refusals such as Sony, Universal or Warner Music Groups, who can if they wish to simply threaten to send artists to rival broadcasters. It should be noted they will only play this kind of card if they feel it is absolutely necessary as they have large marketing and PR departments that would not wish to antagonise or alienate media partners, particularly one such as the BBC which still has considerable influence in the UK market even to this day. Also due to the way the BBC is funded they are not reliant on advertising for revenue, and are in a strong position to determine who gets airplay despite still focusing very much on listener ratings as if they were a commercial station.

My final thought in regards to your question is that Embrace for the future as long as they carry on will be a cult band with a dedicated following that earn a living primarily from touring and residual publishing royalties, as well as any profits on record releases made by either a record label or themselves going D.I.Y. The only change I can see would be the kind of break they had with Coldplay bringing them back into the fold as with 'Gravity' or a released/future song being picked up for advertising campaign/film & TV licensing that leads to demand and airplay, bringing in unexpected sales. 

The fact that they continue to put out records, however sporadically, remains a good thing for me as a fan who has been rarely disappointed by them ('This New Day' aside   ) and puts them on a par with many contemporaries and past artists who whilst not living the millionaire lifestyle are still able to earn a living doing what they love