The Empty Page Tease New Record ‘Imploding’ with “Cock Of the Fifth Year”

It’s been a long time since uncompromising Manchester alt-punks The Empty Page first unfurled their debut album Unfolding back in 2016. It was never their intention to leave it that long, but founding member and original drummer Jim Cattell left the band during the recording process due to ill health; then there was the pandemic, then life stuff got in the way. Some one-off songs and seven-inch single releases kept the fire and desire to play burning, signalling the path to the stunning new album Imploding, due for release this coming May 10th via the band’s own Vociferous Records.

Drummer John Simm (who also serves as percussionist for Stockport indie band Blossoms) plays on the record and at current live shows alongside front-woman Kel Page and guitarist Giz as The Empty Page prepare to enter their exciting next phase, which starts now in the guise of new single “Cock Of the Fifth Year,” the first track to be released from Imploding. The band wastes no time getting established with conviction and power. The new single bristles with attitude and energy and hits hard from the moment it leaves the speakers and wallops your ears and guts.

Page explains:

“‘Cock of the Fifth Year’ is what we called the biggest jock types when I was in high school. Cocky, brash loud and overly confident. Puffed up and swaggering and often quite intimidating. I liked the name for a song and wrote it initially about a cartoonish bloke who unselfconsciously uses up all the space available and makes others feel shoved out of the way. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of blokes like that I encounter when walking around my home city of Manchester. Swaggering, mouthy bellends who can be pretty intimidating when you’re a woman just trying to get from a to b. I was thinking about the idea that being a big deal in high school is the peak of some people’s lives. I hated school with a passion and my own Ife has got better and better as my school days have receded in the rearview. Seems a weird flex now to have been a big deal in high school.”

For Imploding, the band worked with producer Morton Kong and, for the first time, found themselves with the luxury of not having to rush the recording process and took full advantage of the creative space, utilizing the studio’s vintage gear and experimenting with sounds and fresh ideas and generally pushed themselves and their music further than it has ever gone before.

Imploding Track Listing:

1. Dry Ice
2. Cock of the Fifth Year
3. Life is a Wave
4. Medication Nation
5. I’m a White Hot Blade (Witches are Wicked)
6. Gorge (Oh Well)
7. Level Sedentary
8. Big Nasty Palpitations
9. Leaf Thin
10. What Happens Now?

The Empty Page will be playing the the following shows in May:

May 10 – The Night Owl London
May 16 – Yes Basement Manchester

The Empty Page ‘Imploding’ album artwork