The 1981 Listening Post - Empire - Empire

 Empire - Empire

#660

1981 Housekeeping

Empire

Empire

Genre: Hard Rock

2.5 out of 5

Again, I am amazed at just how many songs there are in the world. And I mean, songs that don’t sound like other songs. Reminiscent, sure, but it’s shocking just how many songs there are in the world.

Here’s a one and done by a German band that was never going to be Scorpions but, they wrote songs. And we can hear them.

I’ll save you 40 minutes.

It’s as generic as it comes. 

It does get weird when it turns into full on glam at the end of Side One with “It’s a Ball”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNAATZ42msw

The 1981 Listening Post - Empire - Expensive Sound

Empire - Expensive Sound 

#183

May 18 1981

Empire

Expensive Sound

Genre: The Cutting Edge

3.75 out of 5

Highlights:

Empire

Hot Seat

Imagine discovering this record for the first time in 1981 and not knowing who to share it with. No one would be interested in this. None of your Billy Joel/Queen/Rush friends would know what to do with it. Mayyyyybe the Rush friends but it’s so outside the realm of what we were all listening to that I think they would have passed on it. 

I think of My Bloody Valentine when I hear that opening track but then it explodes into the decidedly Power Pop/Emo sound of “Hot Seat” that I am just left confused. No one sounds like this and yet, in about 10 years everyone would. 

Put these guys in a punkternative playlist that would include, I think, Killing Joke, MBV and even Supergrass. (I think. Someone correct me if this is way off, I get those confused with somebody else sometimes)

As with much of the music of 1981, it runs aground at some point and just can’t recover. That last track is just straight up metal. This album is so weird. 

But so is 1981

https://music.apple.com/us/album/expensive-sound/356925453