Back in May, Empire of the Sun’s eight-year-old semi-hit Walking on a Dream became a mega-hit after it was used in a Honda commercial.
Clearly, the cosmos was willing the return of the LA-based Australian psychedelic duo.
If their penchant for dressing up like Incan sun gods, addressing their fans as “Empyrean Pilgrims” and consuming wild amounts of “sacred plants” felt out of step back in 2009, it’s very much in tune with New Age 2016.
“Alice D is on the way up/ She’s been out all night again,” is just one of the many drug references on single High and Low.
The hooks are often gorgeous (To Her Door) and the ambition to reveal wilder shores is noble.
But for all the wide-eyed wonder the choruses soon start to come on a little shouty and the fine line between coercion and persuasion is crossed.
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