Empire of the Sun - Ice on the Dune
A case could be made of our poor attention span when a band taking 4 years inbetween albums seems exasperatingly long. The problem is that Walking on a Dream was their debut: they only had new fans to disappoint with this wait, and I'm sure some will have moved on entirely. It's not like music has stagnated since the admittedly hit-and-miss debut. The same can be said of the men behind the band: Luke Steele's gone to write songs for Usher, Jay Z and Beyonce, whilst Nick Littlemore's kept working with fellow Australian electro-duo Pnau (most notably on a bizarrely fun album of Elton John remixes) and produced for Groove Armada. So they've been busy. Of course, none of the newcomers quite live up to Steele and Littlemore's sense of style. Since Steele staggered across deserts in the mesmerizing video for their real breakthrough We Are the People , they've stuck in my mind at least as one of the noughties' most eccentric and identifiable performers. A...