Empire Of The Sun
Walking On A Dream

THE REVIEW

"Empire of the Sun are an electronic music duo composed of Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore from Pnau. The group's name is inspired by the 1984 novel of the same name by James Graham Ballard."

This is a brief biography, taken directly from Wikipedia, of the Australian duo that emerged in the past summer of 2008.

I wonder: how did I end up with this "Walking on the Dream" at home? Where it even came from, I still don't know, but that particular cover fascinated me at first sight; these desolate dunes raced by a tiger with a scene depicting a great metropolis of the future with a space-like sky, where the figures of the two members of the duo stand prominently.

I decided to give it a taste, a light listen, to see what my first impressions would be... Well, they were quite disappointing.

The album presents itself as a mix of Indie Rock and Electronic (a bit copied from MGMT? Oh well!). Already from the first track ("Standing on the Shore") you can better understand what we are talking about, more or less the following tracks will be similar if not identical. After the disappointing intro-track, we move on to the first single released, also the eponymous track of the album ("Walking on the Dream"): I can say with certainty that this is truly an excellent Indie track, catchy base (with electronic influences as mentioned before) that accompanies the duo's voices, a small appreciable gem.

Leaving behind the title track, we proceed to "Half Mast", where we find a musical style that differentiates itself from the rest of the tracks, taking inspiration (at least according to my first listen) from a New-Age Prince at the beginning of the Purplerian era. Nice, but nothing more. Next track, last single released: "We Are the People", I would put it a step above the rest like for the previous single, great especially for the lyrics, appreciable.

I overlook the tedious "Without You" and "The World", where Luke Steele's quiet voice droops quite a bit, and I also feel like ignoring the more "driven" ones ("Tiger by My Side" and "Delta Bay") to focus only on "Country", the only instrumental track on the album (is that why it’s the best?) where the simple chords of a classical guitar intertwine with the delicate singing of a young girl, all accompanied by an aura of magic, a track fully realized.

What can I say: this "Walking on a Dream" turns out to be a quite disappointing album compared to expectations, a bit copied here and there where after a first listen it leaves you with no desire for a second. The singles released are Decent/mediocre, always except for "Country".

Rating 2.5 rounded up to 3.