The first time I tried to review The Empire my ears were caressing the speakers as I tried to listen without waking up my housemates. The next time I had it on full blast. That’s my first piece of advice – turn it up. The Empire are not a band of lullabies, and neither should they be listened to in such a way. Wake the lazy f***ers up.
Song titles such as ‘Revolution’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ betray a fixation with past rock gods, and the sound is reminiscent of modern bands who also find their muse in the sixties and seventies, like The Datsuns and The Hives.
Frantic drumming underpins the tracks, particularly on ‘You Want It All’ with fingers tripping over the fretboard in an almost jazz fashion to perfectly balance the raw vocals and add diversity and depth. ‘Revolution’ has a fantastic stop start mentality but the faux American vocals are a little frustrating to say the least, although the Kaisers’ style bridge does help to ameliorate this.
Nothing novel, but once you’ve turned it up and are bouncing around, you won’t care.
Francesca Baker