“There’s also a deep acceptance running through the whole record — that life is fragile, ridiculous, beautiful, terrifying, and short, all at once. Once you really sit with that, a lot of the pressure disappears. We weren’t trying to write something definitive, or sum everything up, or make any grand statement. We just wanted the songs to feel honest in the moment they were written. Ironically the less you consciously try to say something, the more you end up saying. I got out of my own way. Maybe in a way I haven’t been since the first album. Musically, that meant choosing feel over perfection. We wanted the music to sound human — rough around the edges — because the little moments of magic are never polished. You don’t build them, they just arrive. And if you’re paying attention, you might just capture something real. If you’re lucky. Lyrically, I wasn’t interested in distance or irony. I wanted to write from inside the feeling — whether that was love, panic, grief, obsession, or hope — and stay there long enough for it to tell the truth. A lot of the songs live in contradiction, but that tension felt honest.
At its core, this album came from realising that life doesn’t wait for you to be ready. It just keeps happening — and you either show up for it or you don’t. The biggest change on Avalanche is that we stopped trying to figure everything out. This album probably asks more questions than it answers. We let songs stay uncomfortable. We let them say I don’t know, I’m scared, or this might never be enough. That felt more honest, open, and raw than anything we’ve done before.”
To mark the announcement of the new album, the band have shared a new single titled ‘Road To Nowhere’. Going on to speak about the track, McNamara says:
“It’s about the futility of a toxic relationship — the fact you don’t realise you’re on a road to nowhere until you reach the end of it. And really, all roads lead there eventually, so the only thing that matters is how you travel. That’s why the song feels uplifting as well as sad: because the intent was pure. There’s belief, optimism, a stubborn faith that love will get you somewhere better. In retrospect unfortunately in this instance that faith was deluded — the road didn’t lead where I thought it would — but the journey was real, and it was everything I had.”
More about Embrace
Embrace’s debut album, The Good Will Out, was released in 1998 and quickly became one of the biggest-selling debut albums by a British artist. With an ever-growing fanbase, festival headline slots, and large sell-out shows, Embrace wasted no time in establishing themselves as one of the country’s most exciting new bands. Numerous hit singles followed, along with albums Drawn From Memory (2000) and If You’ve Never Been (2001), before the band unexpectedly parted company with their label, Hut Recordings in 2002.
Rather than slowing them down, this only strengthened the band’s resolve. In 2004 Embrace signed to Independiente and returned with their biggest selling album to date Out Of Nothing. Bigger anthems and sold-out tours followed culminating in the release of their third number one album This New Day, in 2006. Cementing the bands reputation as one of the UK’s most iconic and influential bands of their generation.
With no signs of slowing down, a hugely loyal fan base, and looking to score their ninth top ten album in succession, Embrace head into 2026 rightfully celebrating thirty years of an extraordinary journey and a well-deserved place in the history of British music.
