It was ten years ago this afternoon that we released our seventh album Empires. Since that takes us way back to the early days of this blog, I decided to give it a quick listen to see how it has aged.
You probably haven't heard much of this album, I'm afraid, and there's nothing currently online. The reasons for this aren't especially complicated. The master tapes for much of it have long since been lost, and the vocals weren't very well recorded, and in general there's a lot wrong with it. This was, for us, largely the pre-internet age, and in all honesty we had very little idea what we were doing (we still don't).
But it's not a bad album actually. The opening track and single Wherever You Are Now has always been one of my favourites. Here We Stand was a surprise internet hit, and probably would have been a single if we'd realised this at the time. It's a song about the Iraq war, with some brilliant synth lines, and a lot of haunting lyrics that I'm rather proud of now.
Then the final single, Not a Million Miles, with its unique (for us) electro-acoustic sound. It's another favourite of mine, but I don't know whether it will necessarily work for everyone else. Solitaire, too, is unusual - it's pretty much the furthest we've ever gone from "our sound". I'm not sure whether it really works, but I like it.
Turn the Tide is fun - the lyrics are totally daft, but as an early attempt at Euro, it does it's job pretty well. And opening what probably ought to be side B is the lovely In Your Eyes. This one I'm extremely proud of.
Unusually for us, we even managed to get most of the good stuff on the album itself. Golden Wheel got forgotten about for another eight years, of course, and To Live a Lie probably deserved more than to just be another EP track (on the Not a Million Miles single), but otherwise the album is pretty much as good as it could have been.
Things do tail off a little towards the end, inevitably. I think it's fair to say that A Picture on the Wall doesn't really have the impact it was meant to, and much as I love it, I'm not sure When October Comes really does either. Midsummer's Eve would be a great penultimate track if only the vocal weren't so dreadful, and The Final Problem isn't exactly our finest hour either.
It's probably fair to say that this album isn't dull though - except for the slight tailing off, I think it holds up pretty well, a whole decade after its original recording.
Empires came out about 18 months after Zero, closing out a very busy period for us (we've never been anywhere near as prolific since). Our sound had advanced inordinately from the early Ephemeris sessions back in 2000, and we'd done some interesting - and occasionally even successful - experimentation too. Things would go very dark indeed with Dusk, and in many ways the more "pop" sound of Empires is rather refreshing. Listening back, it's still an album I'm extremely pleased with, and I'm really hopeful we can find a way of sharing it with you again soon.
But it's not a bad album actually. The opening track and single Wherever You Are Now has always been one of my favourites. Here We Stand was a surprise internet hit, and probably would have been a single if we'd realised this at the time. It's a song about the Iraq war, with some brilliant synth lines, and a lot of haunting lyrics that I'm rather proud of now.
Then the final single, Not a Million Miles, with its unique (for us) electro-acoustic sound. It's another favourite of mine, but I don't know whether it will necessarily work for everyone else. Solitaire, too, is unusual - it's pretty much the furthest we've ever gone from "our sound". I'm not sure whether it really works, but I like it.
Unusually for us, we even managed to get most of the good stuff on the album itself. Golden Wheel got forgotten about for another eight years, of course, and To Live a Lie probably deserved more than to just be another EP track (on the Not a Million Miles single), but otherwise the album is pretty much as good as it could have been.
It's probably fair to say that this album isn't dull though - except for the slight tailing off, I think it holds up pretty well, a whole decade after its original recording.
Empires came out about 18 months after Zero, closing out a very busy period for us (we've never been anywhere near as prolific since). Our sound had advanced inordinately from the early Ephemeris sessions back in 2000, and we'd done some interesting - and occasionally even successful - experimentation too. Things would go very dark indeed with Dusk, and in many ways the more "pop" sound of Empires is rather refreshing. Listening back, it's still an album I'm extremely pleased with, and I'm really hopeful we can find a way of sharing it with you again soon.
