Opposition – Empire Days

*THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE ALBUM, NOT OF ANY VINYL OR CD QUALITY ETC***

Superb album, very melodic, both moody & uplifting in parts and very well produced. The album is full of great melodic songs, excellent musicianship, funky bass lines, echo guitar and in my opinion Mark Long's best vocals. Very melancholy full of longing & looking back.

Sadly the times restraints of vinyl (one of its MANY flaws) with much longer running CDs still a long way off the mainstream in the early 80s sees 12 songs spread across two sides of vinyl with room for only 22 minutes of music per side. Maybe it would of been better to sacrifice a couple of songs and stretched out a few to give them more depth.

For instance the awesome 'If That Wasn't Love' features some beautiful, dreamy music, guitars layered over strings with a soft drum beat with Mark Longs mournful vocal. It could of done with a longer intro & a instrumental break before the last verse comes in. Instead it seems too short and the last verse (more spoken than sung) is a bit of an odd ending to such a great song. It could of been a hit if it was a single.

Having said that several of the tracks fade really quickly to nothing and then leave several seconds of silence before the next track starts! Very bizarre. Mr Cleanum is one such track. This features some beautiful guitar work, sort of Spanish/Classical, played over Marks mornfull 'This Must Be Heaven' vocal. You can't help singing along but all of a sudden in mid flow it fades out to a really low sound. You can just about hear the guitar and vocals before it fades to nothing. Again, a longer outro and this would of been a truly awesome sing-a-long anthemic song.

Another short track is 'Susan Gets By On Love' another beautiful slice of music & melody with a fantastic Mark Long vocal. Again I'd of loved to of heard a longer version.

The title track 'Empire Days' features Japan style funky bass lines, soft drum beats & loads of delay & echo on the guitar. Synths and keys wash in & out around Marks vocal. It's another stunning track-epic. But again, in full flow it ends rather abruptly.

Musically there are similarities to the Chameleons, especially the guitar work. But if you look at the song lengths on both bands albums to this point in 1985 the Chameleons songs on the whole last a good minute or two longer and mostly have much longer outros which as I mentioned earlier give the songs more depth. Normally it wouldnt be an issue but as this is such a good album & the quick fade out happens on almost every track its becomes annoying as you just want more of the music! And that can only be a good thing, right?

Mark Longs vocals in parts remind me a lot of solo Tom Robinson (RIP Mark).

This album is a long lost classic (like most of the Oppositions work) and well worth searching out especially with early post-punk recordings now enjoying a lot of interest. Impossible to find as a legal download on itunes or Bandcamp etc which is a shame as CD prices are astronomical. The band did reissue their back cat a few years ago but most of the titles are again out of stock. I'm not sure where this album ranks amongst die hard Opposition fans but for me it's one of their best if not THE best...

excellent album from the opposition with intimacy x x x