NUM202.5
Album cover

Unwound

Empire

The climactic entry in our four-set Unwound exploration, Empire compiles the final pair of albums by the Olympia, Washington, trio. On 1998’s Challenge For A Civilized Society, the band toyed with conventional verse/chorus form, stacking layers of noise and distraction on top of tightly constructed melodies. They'd abdicate entirely just three years later with 2001’s Leaves Turn Inside You, executing a 14-song masterclass in home recording that observed a crucial band in graceful transition from post-hardcore trio to experimental quintet. The mammoth double album was lost in the chaos of a post-9/11 media, baffling onlookers and exhilarating fans in successive breaths before it fell far out of print. At their reinvention and terminus, Unwound ultimately asked “Who Cares”? The Empire box-set teems with period singles, B-sides, unreleased studio tracks, and demos, alongside a 15,000-word essay exploring the terminal stages of the ’90s, indie rock, Unwound, and civilization as we know it.

  • 4xLP

    4 140g LPs
    2 single LP tip-on jacket
    1 2-pocket gatefold LP jacket
    4 printed inner sleeves
    1 11

Track List

  1. Unwound Data
  2. Unwound Laugh Track
  3. Unwound Meet The Plastics
  4. Unwound The World Is Flat
  5. Unwound Sonata For Loudspeakers
  6. Unwound NO TECH!
  7. Unwound Side Effects Of Being Tired
  8. Unwound Lifetime Achievement Award
  9. Unwound What Went Wrong
  10. Unwound We Invent You
  11. Unwound Look A Ghost
  12. Unwound December
  13. Unwound Treachery
  14. Unwound Terminus
  15. Unwound Demons Sing Love Songs
  16. Unwound Off This Century
  17. Unwound One Lick Less
  18. Unwound Scarlette
  19. Unwound October All Over
  20. Unwound Summer Freeze
  21. Unwound Radio Gra
  22. Unwound Below The Salt
  23. Unwound Who Cares
  24. Unwound Mile Me Deaf
  25. Unwound The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is A Train
  26. Unwound Solo Sonata
  27. Unwound XLNT (Untitled)
  28. Unwound Laszlo
  29. Unwound Torch Song
  30. Unwound Meet The Plastics (Demo)
  31. Unwound The World Is Flat (Demo)
  32. Unwound Empire (Demo)