Simple Minds - Empires And Dance

Hardly content with fumbling around with the same sound, Simple Minds shifted gears once again for album number three, Empires and Dance. The "dance" aspect of the title needs to be emphasized, but it's apparent that the group's globetrotting and simmering political tensions in Britain affected their material in more ways than one. One gets the idea that Simple Minds did some clubbing and also experienced some disparate views of the world. The opening "I Travel" is the most assaultive song in the band's catalogue, sounding like a Giorgio Moroder production for Roxy Music. Think "I Feel Love" crossed with "Editions of You," only faster; gurgling electronics, a hyperkinetic 4/4 beat, and careening guitars zip by as Jim Kerr delivers elliptical lyrics about unstable world affairs with his throaty yelping (this was still before he developed that predilection for foghorn bombast). The remainder of the album repeals the blitzkrieg frenetic of the beginning and hones in on skeletal arrangements that focus on thick basslines and the loping rhythms that they help frame. The hopping/skipping "Celebrate" isn't much more than a series of handclaps, a light drum stomp, some intermittent bass notes, and some non-intrusive synth effects. It goes absolutely nowhere, yet it's more effective and infectious than most verse-chorus-verse pop songs. The seven minutes of "This Fear of Gods," which boast another dense rhythm abetted by trebly atmospheric elements (distant guitars, percolating electronics, sickly wind instruments), come off like an excellent 12" dub, rather than an original mix. Just as bracing, the paranoiac disco of "Thirty Frames a Second" should have been played regularly at every club in 1980 and should live on as a post-punk dance classic. It's a true shock that this record was released with reluctance. The band coerced an unimpressed Arista into pressing a minimal amount of copies for release (fans still had trouble locating copies), but thankfully Virgin reissued it in 1982.

Empires and Dance, released in September 1980, stands as the crowning achievement of Simple Minds’ early, experimental era. Serving as their third studio album, it represents a bold departure from traditional rock structures, plunging headfirst into a cold, avant-garde sonic landscape. The record serves as a musical travelogue of a bleak, fragmented Europe, heavily influenced by the band's exhausting tour schedules and the tense geopolitical atmosphere of the late Cold War.

Musically, the album is a masterclass in atmosphere, driven by a hypnotic rhythm section that defined the post-punk movement. Bassist Derek Forbes and drummer Brian McGee anchor the tracks with relentless, motorik-inspired beats that ground the record's industrial weight. Layered over this foundation are Michael MacNeil’s haunting, industrial synthesizer textures and Charlie Burchill’s jagged, unconventional guitar work, creating a dense and deeply cinematic wall of sound.

The undisputed centerpiece of the record is the opening track, "I Travel," a blistering slice of "paranoiac disco" that perfectly fuses dark lyrical themes with high-energy electronics. Frontman Jim Kerr's baritone vocals deliver abstract, anxious snapshots of European borders, unrest, and alienation, particularly on standouts like "This Fear of Gods" and "Celebrate." This unique combination of danceable electronic rhythms and doom-laden artistic expression heavily influenced the emerging New Romantic and industrial music scenes.

While Empires and Dance was largely overlooked by mainstream audiences upon its initial release, it has achieved legendary status among critics and music historians. Retrospective reviews frequently rank it alongside the finest works of Joy Division, Wire, and David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. It remains a fascinating, uncompromising document of a band at their creative peak, capturing a distinct moment in time before they transitioned into the polished stadium rock of the mid-1980s.

This pretty version is taken from the X5 Box to MP3 @ 320kbps

Simple Minds; Empires And Dance

1.      I Travel

2.      Today I Died Again

3.      Celebrate

4.      This Fear Of Gods

5.      Capital City

6.      Constantinople Line

7.      Twist/Run/Repulsion

8.      Thirty Frames A Second

9.      Kant-Kino

10.   Room

11.   New Warm Skin

12.   I Travel (Extended)

13.   Celebrate (Extended)

 More Simple Minds available here