Labels: Count Your Lucky Stars – Goddamn Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
It’s October. Fall / Autumn is here (delete as applicable or use them interchangeably as the situation dictates). Well and truly. Turn the car windscreen heater on. Put on some twinkly emo. Drive home in the dark. Try not to ease the car off the road and into that tree. Thank you.
Empire! Empire! have generously donated two songs to this lovely little split and if by this point you haven’t heard them yet are massively partial to the sad sad sounds of Mineral’s Endserenading LP then you are going to bloody love this. Empire! Empire! always have super long song titles, and “We Were Not Small or Great but Grown” is no exception to this unwavering rule. It’s done and dusted in a couple of minutes and a bit, with less than happy vocals pleading throughout. Second song, “It’s”, sorry “It’s a fate we can’t escape. Someday we will all pass away” doubles the duration and continues in the same manner. Lots of super pretty guitars, but perhaps slightly more understated vocals here, before the song builds into noisier moments and a bit of “man-wailing” (as someone previously [accurately] described the vocals of Empire! Empire!). Two absolutely, undeniably lovely songs here from Empire that also serve to remind you that the last LP was bloody ages ago now.
Been a long time since I have heard Rika, their stuff on the split 12″ with Everton was pretty good, and I assumed they had split up by now. They contribute one side filling twinkler to this split, and they also have a (healthy?) appreciation of Mineral’s EndSerenading. You know the score, they fit very well with Empire! Empire! and you can apply much of the description for the Empire songs to Rika’s, although the vocals are softer and less prominent. Very nice song that builds and sways delightfully.
Good split, perfectly matched bands. Hope you managed to keep the car on the road.