01. Data
02. Laugh Track
03. Meet the Plastics
04. The World is Flat
05. Sonata for Loudspeakers
06. NO TECH
07. Side Effects of Being Tired
08. Lifetime Achievement Award
09. What Went Wrong
10. We Invent You
11. Look a Ghost
12. December in Thai
13. Treachery
14. Terminus
15. Demons Sing Love Songs
16. Off This Century
17. One Lick Less
18. Scarlett
19. October All Over
20. Summer Freeze
21. Radio GRA
22. Below the Salt
23. Who Cares
24. Mile Me Deaf
25. The Light at the End of the Tunnel Is a Train
26. Solo Sonata
27. XNLT
28. Laszlo
29. Torch Song
30. Meet the Plastics (Demo)
31. The World Is Flat (Demo)
32. Empire (Demo)
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 exhilirating 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.
