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IN STOCK
01. Empire - Empire
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02. Empire - Hot Seat
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03. Empire - Electric Guitar
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04. Empire - Turn It Round
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05. Empire - Today
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06. Empire - Expensive Sound
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07. Empire - Safety
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08. Empire - Him Or Me
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09. Empire - All These Things
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10. Empire - New Emotion
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11. Empire - Stand
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ARTIST
EMPIRE
TITLE
Expensive Sound
FORMAT
LP
LABEL
MUNSTER RECORDS
CATALOG #
MR 431LP
MR 431LP
GENRE
ROCK
RELEASE DATE
7/15/2022
Munster Records present a reissue of
Empire
's
Expensive Sound
, originally released in 1981. Empire was an offshoot of
Generation X
, and their only LP
Expensive Sound
remains an obscure (yet highly rewarding) listen. Originally released in 1981, the same year
Gary Numan
and
Soft Cell
were raking in big bucks with their noir-flecked brand of retrofuturism,
Expensive Sound
was out-of-step with the climate of commercial music. Their music was raw, bare, warm -- distinct from the glacial, antiseptic pop that would dominate the decade. The album was neither totally forward-looking nor nostalgia embracing. Instead,
Expensive Sound
does what great albums tend to: preserves a specific moment in time. There's an arid, unvarnished quality to the recordings -- typified by front man
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. The subject matter is rendered in a similar, disarmingly plain way. Boredom, depression, unrequited love, and existential dread are treated in equal parts -- sans one song about playing the electric guitar (the aptly titled "Electric Guitar"). 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. If Andrew's bashful vocals are part of the charm, his expressive guitar playing is the main attraction of
Expensive Sound
. As the sole guitarist on the record, he demonstrates a versatility unusual for the band's punk roots -- deftly maneuvering between chunky, minimalist riffing (like on "Hot Seat"), vast swathes of dark noise ("Empire"), and lacerating, tightly coiled leads ("Safety"). While
Expensive Sound
may be better known for the bands it inspired -- the neo-psychedelia of
The Stone Roses
and the athletic fretwork of
Fugazi
-- they deserve appreciation on its own merits: one of the finest guitar pop records of the era.
Other releases on MUNSTER RECORDS