Empire was an offshoot of Generation X, and their only LP \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d remains an obscure (yet highly rewarding) listen.<\/p>\n
Originally released in 1981, the same year Gary Numan and Soft Cell were raking in big bucks with their noir-flecked brand of retrofuturism, \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d was out-of-step with the climate of commercial music. Their music was raw, bare, warm \u2014 distinct from the glacial, antiseptic pop that would dominate the decade. The album was neither totally forward-looking nor nostalgia embracing. Instead, \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d does what great albums tend to: preserves a specific moment in time.<\/p>\n
There’s an arid, unvarnished quality to the recordings \u2014 typified by frontman Derwood Andrews’s voice and words. He sang with uncommon fragility and in a soft, almost diffident voice. There’s little reverb, almost no double tracking, and absolutely no attempt to Americanize his delivery.<\/p>\n
The subject matter is rendered in a similar, disarmingly plain way. Boredom, depression, unrequited love, and existential dread are treated in equal parts \u2014sans one song about playing the electric guitar (the aptly titled \u2018Electric Guitar\u2019). While Derwood’s lyrics exhibit some of the doom-and-gloom sentiment of post-punk progenitors Joy Division, they are almost Holden Caulfield-esque in their simplicity. Empire’s response to adversity is delivered with a shrug and a sigh.<\/p>\n
If Andrew’s bashful vocals are part of the charm, his expressive guitar playing is the main attraction of \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d. As the sole guitarist on the record, he demonstrates a versatility unusual for the band’s punk roots \u2014 deftly maneuvering between chunky, minimalist riffing (like on \u2018Hot Seat\u2019), vast swathes of dark noise (\u2019Empire\u2019), and lacerating, tightly coiled leads (\u2018Safety\u2019). While \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d may be better known for the bands it inspired \u2014 the neo-psychedelia of The Stone Roses and the athletic fretwork of Fugazi \u2014 they deserve appreciation on its own merits: one of the finest guitar pop records of the era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Empire was an offshoot of punk legends Generation X, very influential for the \u201880s Washington D.C. hardcore and UK neo-psychedelic scenes, acting somehow as the missing link between new wave and grunge. \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d was originally released in 1981, their music was raw, bare, warm \u2014distinct from the glacial, antiseptic pop that would dominate the decade.<\/p>\n
While \u201cExpensive Sound\u201d may be better known for the bands it inspired \u2014 the neo-psychedia of The Stone Roses and the athletic fretwork of Fugazi \u2014 they deserve appreciation on its own merits: one of the finest guitar pop records of the era.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":107007,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[233,65],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-107851","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-post-punk-en","7":"product_cat-punk-en","8":"product_shipping_class-lp-lp-7-lp-cd","9":"pa_formato-lp-en","11":"first","12":"instock","13":"sale","14":"taxable","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/107851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=107851"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=107851"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/munster-records.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=107851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}