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However, from track 5 onwards, Empire Of The Sun are unlikely to hold the interest of many listeners as they go over the top and practically lose the plot. The two other cuts included within the opening quartet of tracks on ‘Walking On A Dream’ are both perfectly acceptable, especially the effectively semi-haunting atmospherics of opener ‘Standing On The Shore’.

The bottom line is that if you liked MGMT’s singles, you should also like both of these. Containing acoustic flourishes, the greater length of this track allows the superb falsetto chorus payoff to be held back on (approximately at the 90 second mark) for additional effect. Arguably bettering such a terrific song is the not entirely dissimilar 2nd single ‘We Are The People’. The title track and lead single here may be simple to the extreme, but it has an instantly likeable groove that ingrains itself in the mind with a nice dynamic between Steele’s distorted and falsetto vocals.

Considering that ‘Time To Pretend’, ‘Electric Feel’ and ‘Kids’ were all prominent on many ‘Best singles of 2008’ lists, one feels that the only reason they were not joined by the 2 lead singles off ‘Walking On A Dream’ was because of the home country of both bands. In all honesty, the same weakness can be pointed at Empire Of The Sun’s debut full-length release ‘Walking On A Dream’. The similarities between the two artists do not end there however, since a common criticism of MGMT’s ‘Oracular Spectacular’ was that it was front-loaded and had three great songs plus a bunch of filler. Yet, for the Australian duo, it is simply a meeting point of the collaborator’s main bands Luke Steele’s The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore’s Pnau. More striking though is their musical common ground since they both perform electronica-laced psychedelic pop that is synth-heavy but includes portions of both electric and acoustic guitars. Firstly, they are both duos who do not exactly dress like the average person would. To say that Australia’s Empire Of The Sun bear similarities to the “IT” band of 2008 - MGMT - is an understatement.

The positive here is that the initial band opens up a larger audience for the next… The negative is the perception of being a copy-cat and not as groundbreaking as those who came before them. For example an artist “ahead of their time” might be viewed positively by critics, but negatively by record labels that would prefer albums to be sold now! Another instance of this phenomenon is when one artist breaks worldwide, just before another similar artist records an LP. Timing can be everything when it comes to music and it can often be a two-edged sword.

Review Summary: Similar in sound to MGMT, the comparison between the 2 duos also holds to this debut album being an unapologetically hit and miss affair that contains 3 excellent standouts.

Empire of the sun walking on a dream instrumental wav