Empires And Dance  by Simple Minds

The third album of the Scottish band Simple Minds comes out in 1980, at a time when post-punk, as a major branch of the new wave in Britain, is coming to the forefront. Empires And Dance musically moves in that direction; it is one of the most elegant post-punk works that appeared that year.

The album, both stylistically and lyrically, is influenced by the tour that Simple Minds had undertaken shortly before in the rest of Europe. There, everything they saw, heard, and observed was transferred into the compositions of Empire And Dance. On the cover, one can see the Acropolis of Athens (!) From a musical standpoint, krautrock takes a prominent position. The producer of the album is John Leckie for the third and final Simple Minds album.

Empires And Dance was not a huge success in its time, as the No.41 position on the British charts does not admit to such. Beyond that, however, this particular album has influenced later artists. For example, James Dean Bradfield of the Manic Street Preachers, who was only eleven years old at the time of its release, cites it as a defining musical influence.