Easy Life

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 retro-futurism, 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. 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. These two previously-unavailable-on-vinyl songs were recorded in 1981 for a second album that wasn't finally released.