Review Summary: A windows down, volume up delight.
Was caught a bit flat-footed by All You Embrace. While it's obvious from the jump that the melodic hardcore baseline that Wilkes-Barre natives One Step Closer deliver is eminently approachable, it did present a bit as too by the book. From the blistering opening of "Color You" to the groove-meets-shout verses of "Leap Years", I couldn't help but feel like I had heard this story before. Emotionally charged and resonating, it
does check the boxes for what a punk band should deliver today. Their style is youthful and poignant in a genre that requires youth and poignancy. The choruses succeed in prying their way into your head and inevitably you're screaming "Why did you bring this back up?!" during your second spin of "Your Hazel Tree". It's all here, nailing the pre-requisites as it were.
Thankfully, there's a lot more going on than first glance. Sure the album is full of hooks, the aforementioned "Leap Year" and the stellar "Orange Leaf" being particularly infectious, but that's not what you remember. "Giant's Despair" shows off the biggest range, a cinematic seethe before breaking into horns to put an exclamation point on the penultimate track, while "Topanga" has a bridge that would make Blink-182 proud (pretty sure this is just "Always" reimagined). The back half of "The Gate" dissolves into a dry acoustic and takes the previously indignant "When I close the gate again, and I turn away again, my mind is made" and transforms it -- removing the bite and making it mournful; regretful. These little compliments are the selling point for repeat listens.
That's where One Step Closer grabs. They satisfied our primal need to have a sing along pop-punk album for summer and then proceeded to make it so damn interesting. Each spin unravels a bit more, showing maturity where expecting childishness and rule-breaking when expecting by-the-numbers. All You Embrace is an album of calculated risks in a genre blending in a package that deceives you into believing it's stock standard. It's replay value galore and a windows down, volume up delight.
