Ice On The Dune
The follow up to Empire of the Sun’s attention-grabbing debut comes five years later, but follows in a similar mould to the duo’s renowned dreamy, synth led dance pop that earned them their fame.
Everything about these guys screams dreamy, futuristic escapism with an absence of the mundane. Luke Steele’s peacock-influenced headpiece on the album’s cover illustrates his love and commitment to maintaining an otherworldly appearance and presence in the listener’s mind.
The album features a strong intent to reinforce and continue with the sound people already know and love, with tracks like Alive all about feel-good, joyful lyrics and pop focused chord progressions.
There is a common purpose throughout the record in bringing something memorable and distinctly ‘them’ to each track, which confirms Empire of the Sun are not going to be making music as crazy and out there as you might think, rather a more audience focused stance is taken, perhaps drawing from Steele’s global travel and work with pop musicians in the years between albums. It seems as though he is the idealistic driving force behind the band, with Nick Littlemore taking a backseat but balancing out the eccentricities of Steele’s personality.
The bright lights of fame and fortune may be distracting these musicians from achieving their full artistic potential with concerns about outside perceptions having an impact on their musical direction, but tailoring your sound to an audience (particularly the US market) achieves mainstream acknowledgement, a path Steele and Littlemore are successfully pursuing.
TOM KITSON
