Empire of the Sun

Walking on a Dream

Virgin

Rating: 4/5

Five years ago, Luke Steele was fronting the Sleepy Jackson, a fondly regarded bunch of indie also-rans from Perth, Australia. Against any logic and against all odds, he's reacquainted himself with the zeitgeist. And he's done it, paradoxically, by rewinding a quarter century. He's dressed up like Kiefer Sutherland in Dune (if Kiefer had been in that film), hooked up with a guy (Nick Littlemore of Pnau) who could have stepped out of Prince's Revolution, and made an album that's more '80s than chatting to Max Headroom on CB radio. Steele now sings in a strange syllable-swallowing warble, like a male Stevie Nicks. Empire of the Sun have revived that very slender subgenre, existential FM pop – think Billy Idol's 'Eyes Without a Face', or A-Ha's 'Manhattan Skyline'. As with Gruff Rhys's 'Neon Neon', you're simultaneously unsure as to whether it's a conceptual prank, and very sure that it doesn't matter either way.

Download: 'Swordfish Hotkiss Night'