by Andres "Pop Rocks" Santos
Australian synth-pop duo Empire of the Sun is back with its self-produced sophomore album "Ice on the Dune." The duo returns with its sense of melody intact creating a shimmering aural spectacle. It has been five years since the duo released its 2008 debut, "Walking on a Dream." The time spent touring the world and the long gestation period has helped the duo avoid the much feared frequently occurring dreaded sophomore album curse. The electro-pop duo return with an energetic follow-up album in the same vein as its brilliant super-catchy debut.
The duo avoids the sophomore album curse by not attempting to completely reinvent themselves and veer into a different direction and sound. It sticks to the winning formula and charm of its debut with effervescent melodies and thumping four-on-the-floor beats. It also helps both vocalist Luke Steele and instrumentalist Nick Littlemore are music industry veterans. Armed with an absurd back story for the album and its futuristic glam rock-indebted look, the duo is not wasting time re-entering the pop realm riding high on a chariot of fire.
Opening song "Lux" introduces us to the otherworldly back story of the new album by way of a Star Wars-lite instrumental. Buoyant first single "Alive" transports you to an all-night Ibiza rave. It is dazzling beach island glamour over a glam rock stomp that is a meld of Euro-pop and New Wave. You can smell the sweat, sea salt and feel the kick of aural MDMA coming off the dance floor on this number. A perfect song to blast out of radios this summer. Some songs just make you happy to be "alive," pun intended.
Empire of the Sun takes its cues from sci-fi, the current Sgt. Pepper of indie rock: Fleetwood Mac's "Tango in the Night," Electric Light Orchestra and the Xanadu soundtrack. Singer Luke Steele can channel both Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra's blue-eyed soul falsetto and the cool dead-pan vocal delivery of Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant, sometimes all within the same song.
Title track "Ice on the Dune" reinvents Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere" as a club thumper, it is equal parts majesty and kitsch. This is the best Fleetwood Mac song Christine McVie did not write. "Ice on the Dune" offers life-affirming audible euphoria. It is a color saturated Rothko painting that reveals more upon repeated listening just as a Rothko offers more upon repeated viewing.
"Celebrate" is a banger in the vein of great Daft Punk singles. The bombastic song is an immediate rush of ecstasy. A song befitting its title. "I'll Be Around" is the romantic and lush soundtrack to a pink California beach sunset. It is a breezy ballad in the vein of great Pet Shop Boys songs like "Being Boring" and "Suburbia." The song is a dreamy Technicolor Pierre et Gilles photograph come to life.
"Concert Pitch" is bright sunny pop from a duo of sci-fi obsessed weirdoes over club-ready Max Martin/Dr. Luke beats straight out of a Katy Perry album but in Empire of the Sun's hands they don't sound cheesy or over-produced. "Concert Pitch" sounds like what Fleetwood Mac's post-Rumours albums "Mirage" and "Tango in The Night" would sound like if they were made in 2020 instead of thirty years ago. "Awakening" takes the best bits of electro-pop as created by Goldfrapp and the French House of Daft Punk douses them in acid colors and places them under a neon glow.
"Ice on the Dune" is a fitting album for the summer of 2013. The album offers a slice of globetrotting fun, immediacy, accessibility and is the upbeat electronic dance music album everyone was expecting from Daft Punk this summer instead of the nerdgasm-inducing sequel to the "Phantom of the Paradise" soundtrack we got.
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