Empire of The Sun - "Ice on the Dune"

Artist: Empire of the Sun

Album: Ice on the Dune

Label: Astralwerks

Release Date: June 18^th, 2013

Review by: Sean Kayden

After a five-year gap, electronic pop aficionados Empire of the Sun are back with a more polished sound than ever.  Their new record, “Ice on the Dune” is a luminous, often beautifully crafted pop effort. Duo Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore bring everything to the table with a richly layered, elegiac pop sound. The songs here have quite a bit of depth and Steele’s vocals have the ability of hitting you straight in the heart. “Ice on the Dune” specializes in dance beats, falsetto vocals, and razor sharp choruses. The first of the half of the record really shines with “DNA” and “Alive” both providing sugary sweet synths and summery pop energy. However, toward the later half of the album, the glow fades a bit. The second half is still somewhat enjoyable, especially with standout track, “I’ll Be Around” but this portion of the record is not nearly as stimulating as the first half.

Since the time between the debut, “Walking On A Dream” and “Ice on The Dune” was so long, this endeavor was surely a laborious one. The record starts off with “Lux,” which displays an epic, grandeur movie soundtrack entrance. It’s a sign that Empire of the Sun is back and to listen up. This is after all a music act that’s sports an outlandishly empyrean outfit on stage. So they definitely have the capability of being overblown. All distractions aside, the duo knows how to elevate the energy to a maximum level. “Alive” is clearly the song of summer. With incredible beats, intoxicating choruses that you’ll find impossible not to sing along to, and an overall warm feel to compliment the time of the year, “Alive” is one of the band’s strongest and most significant tracks. “Concert Pitch” keeps the high tempo alive as being another infectious pop tune that’s meant to be played while driving with the windows down. Title track “Ice on The Dune” continues this trend of super catchy songs that incorporate a deeper resonance than other bands driven by this similar snyth-pop style. Empire of the Sun make it possible for dance music to mean something more than just having quick beats, but also including a heartbeat to go along with it.

If the other tracks on “Ice on the Dune” are influenced by the 80s, then “I’ll Be Around” leans more toward 70s soft rock. In vein of Fleetwood Mac, the song has a certain mystic glow to it as it gently sails from start to finish. There’s something indelible about the arrangements as “I’ll Be Around” clearly is the bands most sensitive and personal track on the record. As some of the later tracks blend together with similar sounds, I feel the listening experience may benefit more from breaks between hearing a few songs and going onto the next couple. I say this because toward the end, the magic, while still apparent, doesn’t offer to many new tricks. It’s fine since the opening act was quite magnificent. Sadly, the closing ceremony finds a bit of rehashing or the same tricks packaged differently. Overall, “Ice of the Dune” is a completely welcoming album from a band, which I thought threw in the towel. However, they clearly were working on something much more ambitious than I could have ever imagined. While not everything here is faultless or memorable, there are enough spectacular songs here that can make you forgive Empire of the Sun for those tracks that clearly don’t live up to the rest.

Grade: 7.8 out of 10

Key Tracks: “DNA”, “Alive”, “Ice on The Dune”, “I’ll Be Around”

Published by Mountain Views News on June 22rd, 2013
http://mtnviewsnews.com/v07/htm/n25/p16.htm