It’s no secret that Instant Empire is a band with a masterful command of the English language. On their fourth LP, the band drops listeners in medias res straight into the lyric of which the album derives its title. Here, we see the weightiness of what follows on full display: a tired boxer, caught in brief respite, not yet out of the fight. These songs are fraught with weariness and struggle, though, as usual, the group cants their worldview in short-story format. There are a number of personalities, whether real or imagined, who serve as our guides through this strange vignette of modern pain.

“The Palace Thief” is a quintessential opener. Layered vocals and harmonies float over a simple of bed of piano, and it’s honestly surprising how just one other vocal component can help fill in space so effectively. Things start to intensify into the second verse, and then the whole band kicks in to powerful effect. Tremolo picked guitar follows shortly after, and it’s clear that the band have not lost the heart of their expansive, dynamic songwriting. In fact, by the end, the arrangement has simplified yet again, and only a small fraction of the song features percussion.

But Instant Empire has always been the sort of band where storytelling has functioned as a primary instrument, and it’s just as clear as ever here. This is a painful-yet-relatable song, a song about self-destructive tendencies disguised as cultural ideals. It’s a song about our work being contrary to ourselves. It’s something I relate to personally, but it’s something the creative side of me struggles with even more. It costs you to “make the thing”, and at what point are you trying to “make the thing” to meet some standard for yourself no one else has? Now, the song doesn’t ever point to this specifically, but it’s certainly something that has probably crossed the mind of anyone who is at least trying to match the quality of the “last thing they made”.

It’s certainly noting that the Scotty Saunders’ lead vocals might be an acquired taste. I might dare to compare them to mewithoutYou, though I personally find Saunders’ approach much easier to digest. But since the band has a heavy literary bent, you’re going to be hearing plenty of him. There are also plenty of backing vocals from bassist Aaron Stone to keep things balanced, and a guest appearance from Anika Pyle on “Every Little Light” is definitely a highlight. There are certainly bands with crazier arrangements, but letting Saunders focus on what he does best mostly works – and vocal layering is employed both liberally and creatively, to the point it can be expected in some vague sense, though still manifesting unpredictably enough to ever feel like a gimmick.

The album is rife with a sense of mortality and loss. Take “Most Likely to Succeed” and its painful retrospective toward an assigned identity in the back of a high school yearbook, “Ulalume” and its focus on broken relationships, or “No Coda” and its spoken word lament. Overall, the album isn’t completely dissimilar musically to 2019’s Cathedrals, sans much of the female vocals, but it’s clear that there is definitely a higher concentration of what makes Instant Empire great. A darker theme demands more emotional compositions, and this sees the band play creatively with booming crescendos and more sparse moments (often on the same song, like “The Palace Thief” or “(Not Sure I Believe) In Ghosts”) to strong effect. Instant Empire deftly avoid weirdly-barren ballads, but they don’t have the post-rock dial maxed out, either.

By “First Time, Long Time (Michael Calls In)”, the album has come full circle a bit in some respects. Here, it seems like the protagonist of “The Palace Thief” once again finds himself in another fight. He’s still locked in the internal struggle, and this time he’s knocked out for good. “If I could prove myself, I’d improve myself,” Saunders remarks, laying one final stone on the album’s foundation of purpose preceding person.

And while the album could have ended right there, “Paper Thin” adds one final piece to the puzzle. There’s definitely an element of spiritual wrestling at play on many of the tracks which makes one particular section stand out:

Yeah, I’d been going through a rough patch
But on the final day of the year
Under the Sangre de Cristos
The air was crisp and clear

Saunders step out of the fantasy for a moment and into Colorado (where the band is based). The Rocky Mountains, in almost any respect, are majestic and domineering, and it’s easy to see how there would be a sort of spiritual experience to accompany viewing them. But there’s a good chance that the band members are no strangers to one of Colorado’s most famous attractions, and Saunders is simultaneously far too crafty to simply stop at something so surface. The mountain range’s name translates nicely from Spanish to “The Blood of Christ”, and it’s a sort of subversion of the traditional religious experience. But even so, there does seem to be a large recognition of the finitude of ourselves and how we don’t (and, more appropriately, can’t) be the true masters of our fate. We are, indeed, paper thin and fragile. And by the end, this understanding feels akin to metanoia. While other tracks see characters wrestle with fate largely through trying to earn love and acceptance, “Paper Thin” recognizes the folly of this. And, while it’s clear that the band doesn’t ascribe to conventional Christianity, this perspective is quite poetically Christian of all things.

But for the less lyrically-initiated, you’re still in luck here. Instant Empire certain do not slack on the musical front. The record provides a moody brand of piano-tinged indie rock that has its stronger moments (“Tiny Flashes”, for instance) and more pensive offerings (“Slings and Arrows”). It’s artful and cinematic, and it calls to mind bands like The Foxery, mewithoutYou, The National, and even more accessible acts like Keane. There are hints of synth pop and post-hardcore alike, but Instant Empire never veer beyond the silhouettes of these genres.

All in all, Standing Eight Count falls nicely into Instant Empire’s legacy. It’s a consistent album full of tracks front-to-back that could easily have worked as singles. It’s definitely a cohesive work, where the lyrics, instrumentation, and studio all work in tandem toward a captivating journey through the human condition. The band have taken the highlights of their work on Cathedrals and have aimed ever higher. And the song’s sentiments, though perhaps more explicit and irreverent than previous tracks, certainly see the group wrestle with identity and purpose in a world wrought with strife and pain. It’s honest, even uncomfortably so at times, but it’s a conversation worth having.

You can follow Instant Empire on Facebook and Instagram and pre-order the album on Bandcamp.