Empires and Dance

Empires and Dance is the third studio album by Scottish new wave band Simple Minds, released on 12 September 1980 by record label Arista.[2]

Empires and Dance
Studio album by
Released12 September 1980
RecordedMay – July 1980
StudioRockfield and Rolling Stones Mobile (Wales)
Genre
Length45:33
LabelArista
ProducerJohn Leckie
Simple Minds chronology
Real to Real Cacophony
(1979)
Empires and Dance
(1980)
Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call
(1981)
Singles from Empires and Dance
  1. "I Travel"
    Released: 1 September 1980
  2. "Celebrate"
    Released: April 1981

Recording and release

Empires and Dance was recorded from May to July 1980[3] in Wales at Rockfield Studios[4] and the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio.[2] The songs were influenced by the band's experience of travelling in Europe on their previous tour.[5]

While more successful than its non-charting predecessor (Real to Real Cacophony), Empires and Dance charted relatively poorly, peaking at only number 41 in the UK Albums Chart.[6] According to AllMusic, this was primarily because Arista Records only released a small number of copies at a time before each batch sold out. This had the effect of limited availability for fans.[7]

The opening track "I Travel" was released as a single in 1980, but failed to chart. "Celebrate" was chosen as the second single due to popularity amongst fans. However, it was only released after Simple Minds had left Arista. As a result, the single sold very poorly, and the picture sleeve 7" is amongst the hardest of the band's singles to find.

Following the release of the album, Simple Minds transferred to Virgin Records, where they met with much greater commercial success. Arista tried to capitalise on this success by re-releasing "I Travel" as a single in 1982, along with the compilation Celebration. In 1983, Virgin re-released "I Travel" on 12", to coincide with the acquisition of the band's Arista catalogue. Both times, it still failed to chart.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[7]
The Great Rock Discography8/10[8]
Pitchfork8.1/10[9]
Record Mirror[10]
Smash Hits9/10[11]

Empires and Dance has been well-received critically. Paul Morley called it "a weird, agitating record" in his review for NME. He highlighted "I Travel" as one of "the great disco-rock songs" and "the magnificent" "This Fear of Gods" as the band's "most impressive work to date", and concluded: "Simple Minds have invented their own ways, melodramatic yet modernist. An authentic new torch music. I'm dancing as fast as I can."[12] Simon Ludgate of Record Mirror praised Empires and Dance as "one of the few classic albums of 1980."[10]

Legacy

In a retrospective review, Andy Kellman of AllMusic described Empires and Dance as a "post-punk dance classic".[7] Trouser Press said that despite its inconsistency, Empires and Dance was an "extremely atmospheric and promising" album, "with good dance tunes and a few more quasi-psychedelic ones."[13]

The album cover's faux Cyrillic typeface was emulated for the cover of Manic Street Preachers' third album The Holy Bible, released in 1994. (While the former album reversed all Rs and Ns to resemble Cyrillic letters, the latter album, in contrast, reversed only the Rs.) Twenty years later, Empires and Dance would be cited as a key influence on Futurology, the Manics' twelfth album. It remains one of singer and guitarist James Dean Bradfield's favourite records.[14] He said of Empires and Dance in a 1995 Melody Maker article on his favourite albums:

"I've always liked records with are completely misinformed and displaced. They were aware that they were Scottish, and trying to shun it. [...] Anyway, that's why they tried to become really European, this dark, unemotive, industrial band, but in demographic/geographic terms they were really confused, and that can produce brilliant records. I don't think the British look towards Europe in the rose-tinted way Americans do. We see it in Basil Fawlty-ish terms. I remember reading Jim Kerr going on about the Baader-Meinhof gang, and the Red Brigade, and trying to make sense of all these conflicting ideologies. On musical terms it really does make sense. The best bands manifest their lyrics into their music, and it really fucks me off when people don't realise that."[15]

Imagery in Patrik Sampler's novel The Ocean Container[16] was inspired by "Thirty Frames a Second".

Track listing

All lyrics are written by Jim Kerr; all music is composed by Simple Minds.

Side A
No.TitleLength
1."I Travel"4:00
2."Today I Died Again"4:36
3."Celebrate"5:03
4."This Fear of Gods"7:03
Side B
No.TitleLength
1."Capital City"6:15
2."Constantinople Line"4:43
3."Twist/Run/Repulsion"4:31
4."Thirty Frames a Second"5:02
5."Kant-Kino"1:52
6."Room"2:28

Personnel

Simple Minds

Technical

Charts

Chart (1980–81) Peak
position
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[17] 47
UK Albums (OCC)[18] 41

References

  1. Peters, Mathijs (2020). "Futurology". Popular Music, Critique and Manic Street Preachers. Springer Nature. p. 362. ISBN 978-3-030-43100-6. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  2. "Record News". NME. 30 August 1980. p. 5.
  3. "timeline". Dream Giver Redux. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  4. Kerr, Jim (17 July 2008). "Rockfield". simpleminds.com. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  5. "empires and dance". Dream Giver Redux. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  6. "Simple Minds". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  7. Kellman, Andy. "Empires and Dance – Simple Minds". AllMusic. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  8. Strong, Martin C. (2004). "Simple Minds". The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). Canongate Books. ISBN 1-84195-551-5.
  9. Tangari, Joe (15 April 2004). "Simple Minds: Reel to Real Cacophony / Empires and Dance". Pitchfork. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  10. Ludgate, Simon (13 September 1980). "All in the Mind". Record Mirror. p. 18.
  11. Cranna, Ian (2–15 October 1980). "Simple Minds: Empires and Dance". Smash Hits. Vol. 2 no. 20. p. 29.
  12. Morley, Paul (13 September 1980). "Awe and Terror from the Inner Minds". NME. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  13. Schlosberg, Karen; Robbins, Ira. "Simple Minds". Trouser Press. Archived from the original on 30 November 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
  14. Price, Simon (3 July 2014). "A Masterpiece: Simon Price On Manic Street Preachers' Futurology". The Quietus. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  15. "Rebellious Jukebox". Melody Maker. 7 January 1995. Retrieved 17 December 2019.
  16. Patrik, Sampler (16 June 2017). The ocean container (First ed.). Rome, GA. ISBN 9780979132049. OCLC 1032773267.
  17. "Charts.nz – Simple Minds – Empires and Dance". Hung Medien. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  18. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
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