Introducing Gabriels

Trust me #30

Song of the year - Love and Hate in a Different Time by Gabriels

Earlier on in 2021 Paul Weller curated a mix CD titled Into Tomorrow for Mojo magazine. One of the songs was Love and Hate in a Different Time by an artist called Gabriels. It stood out a mile and I played it a lot in the car.

But ... I never checked up on the artist. I just assumed that it was an old soul cut from the late 60's or early 70's, an era that Weller is passionate and knowledgeable about. 

In late September sunshine I was driving my Mum and sister to North Berwick and I had the CD on. My sisters ears pricked up as Gabriels played. 

WHAT IS THAT?!

Oh it's a song on a Paul Weller compilation, brilliant isn't it?

WHO IS IT?

Emmmm can't remember, the CD cover is in our kitchen!

On the way back we played the song again and Carla sent me a message to remind me to check the song and artist when I got into our kitchen. I did and Carla checked up on Gabriels.

IT WAS RELEASED THIS YEAR! THE EP IS AMAZING

Carla tends to send messages in block capitals when excited!

And then a couple of months later.

GABRIELS IS PLAYING KING TUTS IN APRIL ... CAN YOU GET US TICKETS?!

I could and I did. By this point Love and Hate in a Different Time was our song of the year. The gig is SOLD OUT. Check this dreamy live performance.

Check Gabriels stunning performance for Later to see and hear why and read on for a full introduction to the band. You can also check this short film. 

Gabriels is singer Jacob Lusk with producers Ryan Hope and Ari Balouzian. The trio release Loyalty (feat. Ashley Sade) as their debut single in 2018, a slow burning soulful confessional gem, beautifully structured and delivered.

There was a gap of two years to 2020's In Loving Memory, another ballad. Lusk's voice is stunning, whispering his story, the backing vocals are exquisite, the finger snaps really SNAP. The production is sublime.

Love and Hate in a Different Time was released in June this year as an EP, also including the songs Professional, In Loving Memory and their debut single Loyalty.

As mentioned, the title track simply blew me away; the lyrics, arrangement, playing, voice and production. The use of backing vocals, strings, handclaps, effects .... Love and Hate in a Different Time is ridiculously good. Classic, timeless, pure, beautiful, sublime ...

We lost it in the fire

Love and hate in a different time

We lost it in the fire

What I did to make you mine

Professional is gorgeously swoony and dreamy, Lusk's voice is simply heaven sent and again, the strings and arrangement are just incredible. So beautiful. Lusk is backed by fellow angels as the song takes a gentle but lovely twist.

You were supposed to protect me baby

You were supposed to love me

Bloodline, released on 3rd December, is the second EP of the year for Gabriels. The songs continue to display vast riches in terms of writing, performance, vocals, arrangements and production.

Innocence is moody, dark and atmospheric. Stark at times, beautiful strings offer glimmers of hope at others. Lusk sounds wounded, singing ain't love a hypocrite? when he sounds like he already knows the answer.

Lusk sounds more hopeful  Blame, but he also sings of being lost and asking who will catch him when he falls down.

Can't be a slave if I'm already free

Can't be a captive if it's where I wanna be

The highest compliment I can pay Gabriels is that they sound like nothing else going on (that I have heard) at present. It's just sublime

Stranger is quite outstanding. Again, just dripping with soul, aching with hurt, the instrumentation, the arrangements - utter genus. Just before 2-minutes the melody begins to flow...

I wish I would've told you

We had something I never had

I wish that I could hold you

I f**ked up and can't take it back

Lusk goes on to realise now we're just strangers, two distant strangers, you're just a stranger.

Dreamy strings usher in Bloodline, there is an old 50's jazz style feeling to the song - vocals and instrumentation. Lusk tells a story of his ancestors, his bloodline, getting poetic by urging people to speak bravely, speak truly, do it with all of your heart. Imploring keep rising, keep shining, 'til the ocean meets the stars, ending by saying don't let it destroy you

Links to all the songs I have previously featured in my Trust Me series are listed below.

And you can check them all via my Trust Me playlist on Spotify by CLICKING HERE or searching for Everything Flows Trust Me.

Previous Trust Me blogs

1. Something On Your Mind by Karen Dalton

1A. Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells

2. I Am, I Said  by Neil Diamond

3. Where's The Playground Susie?   by Glen Campbell

4. If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lighfoot

5. Gimme Some Truth by John Lennon

6. Gone With The Wind Is My Love by Rita and the Tiaras

7. In The Year 2525 by Zager and Evans

8. The Music Box by Ruth Copeland

9. The Ship Song by Nick Cave

10. Sometimes by James

11. I Walk The Earth by King Biscuit Time

12. Didn't Know What I Was In For by Better Oblivion Community Centre

13. When My Boy Walks Down The Street by The Magnetic Fields

14. The Man Don't Give A F**k by Super Furry Animals

15. All Flowers In Time Bend Towards The Sun by Jeff Buckley and Liz Fraser

16. Are You Lookin' by The Tymes

17. A Real Hero by College & Electric Youth

18. Feelings Gone by Callum Easter

19. Sunday Morning by The Velvet Underground

20. Did I Say by Teenage Fanclub

21. Don't Look Back by Teenage Fanclub

22. Your Love Is The Place Where I Come From by Teenage Fanclub

23. Belfast by Orbital

24. Clouds by The Jayhawks

25. Dreaming Of You by The Coral

26. Everlasting Love by The Love Affair

27. As Long As I've Got You by The Charmels

28. Shaky Ground by Sneeze

29. Rill Rill by Sleigh Bells

The Good Will Out

Next week Embrace celebrate the 21st anniversary of their debut album The Good Will Out with a show at the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow.

I fell for Embrace when they released the Fireworks EP back in the Spring of 1997. Fireworks was an absolute gem of a song, real heart on the sleeve stuff and the EP contained enough over 4-songs to ensure I knew this was a band with a little something about them. This was mixed with excellent interviews in the music weeklies, here was a band led by two brothers speaking from the heart at a time where another band of brothers had disappeared up their own backsides.

My friend and I went to see them at King Tut's and they had the confidence and swagger to open with All You Good Good People. I distinctly remember turning to my mate and saying 'bloody hell, that could be a Beatles song'. It had ambition written all over it, but in a soulful way, it had a gorgeous surging string arrangement beautifully mixed with a chiming guitar riff. It blew me away.

The song had originally been released on the excellent Fierce Panda label as a ltd edition 7-inch in February of 1997, swiftly leading to a deal with Hut Records who re-released the song later that year.

All You Good Good People is a stunning opener, after a 46 second intro, to The Good Will Out, it sets a high bar in terms of quality and the remarkable thing is that the band largely match it across the album.

I feel like I meant something, you always say you need more time 

Well I'll stay right here and I'll wait for good until I find a love worth mine

The way the band build things up, bring it down and then take it higher is just brilliant. It blew my mind when I saw and heard them play it back in the late 90's and I'll be singing from the heart at the Barrowland next week.

How to follow that? Well with a heart melting, sky scraping ballad called My Weakness Is None Of Your Business. Where and how in hell were this band coming up with these songs? Danny McNamara sings over a piano before guitar, bass and drums gently kick in.

When the strings kick in as Danny sings that's why, I get that shallow feeling that you like, I'll never learn that I can't win it is spine tingling.

The McNamara's pour their hearts out on this album. There is love, loss, hurt, pleading and soul bearing honesty.

For evidence I present Come Back To What You Know, what an absolute beauty, I love the line that leads to the first chorus and I am a sucker for a double chorus.

I'll never let you down

Or ever feel the way that I've been fearing now

Coming back to what you know won't mean a thing

Everyting that you've done keeps you from me

Now that I know that I need more time

Come back and let me see you're right

I'm coming back to what you know

Cause I know that I need it now it's gone

Now I know that I need more time

Come back and let me se you're right

This is a ballad that builds and delivers a punch, McNamara is all in on this album, his cards are on the table, his heart is on his sleeve and in his mouth.

Credit must go to his brother Richard on guitar and Mickey Dale on keyboards for creating the soaring arrangements which go so well with the lyrics and vocal melodies. The whole band are totally on it and the production by Youth is absolutely spot on.

It is the ballads that I love this album for, so I have to confess that I'm not a huge fan of One Big Family on record, although it is a mighty live track.

Oh my, I haven't listened to the whole album in a long time but I am listening on headphones and Higher Sights is another absolute stunner of a song.

Then we'll dance

These plans we make won't last

They'll wear and fade 

Like fools too young to run out of time

We'll always set our sights high

And Retread is Danny McNamara at his most heartbreaking with his brother at his beat on guitar. The verses have McNamara singing over an acoustic before his brother comes in with a stunning riff, but then the chorus kicks in and it has everything I fell for about Embrace in a few seconds. Danny is just singing his heart out, it's really raw and beautiful and the band are just going for it. Look at those lyrics - pure.

Now I feel so insecure

I can't save

Something I feel so much for

Won't you stay 

And leave a light for me

After the second chorus the song goes to a new level with Danny questioning will you fight? as the strings and guitars go crazy.

I can't help but think of some of the b-sides from the era that could have gone on the album in place of I Want The World and You've Got To Say Yes.  In my opinion they just don't fit in with the album at all in terms of the way it feels, or in terms of quality.  But hey, there is more than enough to make up for it

'Cause then we get to Fireworks. What a song, so gentle, so soulful, so gorgeous, so inspiring. McNamara sings of seeing enough to want to try to change things, how the fireworks inside him are all gone, when it feels right and it's wrong, and at one point he almost asks if he has let his love down before correcting himself and confirming I'll never let you down.

This is the song that made me fall for Embrace and I played it to all of my friends and a crowd of us went to see them as they moved from Tuts to the Barrowland. I think they played Tuts twice before the Barrowland but it was a swift rise on the back of a string of EP's leading to the album.

The Last Gas is another rockier and I'm just not a fan of Embrace doing rockers like this. It sounds so out of place sandwiched between the gorgeous Fireworks and the incredible That's All Changed Forever.

McNamara is pouring his heart out again on That's All Changed Forever, he does it so well. The arrangement is just perfect, the emotion is beautifully captured in McNamara's voice, in the playing and production.

There's gotta be something, worth having, worth all this

In my life at last one thing

That I can go along with

I lost half of what I could have been

When I realised you weren't meant for me

I wonder which good feeling to go with

Til i realised, that's all changed for good, forever

Now You're Nobody is a moody gem leading to the title track and album closer The Good Will Out. It is an epic 6-minute plus ballad that leads into a Hey Jude inspired sing-a-long at the end. And it works, check the incredible live performance from Glastonbury 2000 below. There is a beautiful moment when Danny McNamara comes to the front of the stage as the band strip it right back and the crowd sings, you can see what it means to him.

So there you have it, The Good Will Out (LP) revisited. I'm not going to lie, there are 2-songs on the album I don't rate, 2 more that I don't think fit, but in All You Good Good People, Come Back To What You Know, Higher Sights, Retread, Fireworks, That's All Changed Forever, Now You're Nobody and the title track you have some sensational soulful ballads that have easily stood the test of 21-years.

Roll on the Barrowland.

5 for Friday 11/11/11

So I'm a little late in buying the new Ryan Adams album.


This is rather lovely...

I am loving this just now, real Massive Attack circa 'Blue Lines' vibe going on

So New Order are playing in London in December. Won't be quite the same without Hooky but they are one of my fave bands of all time. How about 10-minutes of them?

Speaking of fave bands, I do have a ticket for The Roses at Heaton Park next year. I fear the worst and dream of the best.

And I am looking forward to The Lemonheads at Oran Mor in December.