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New Musical Express (NME)

They’re silly but their songs demand to be taken seriously, just like Prince, Ultravox and Bowie. And yes, they’re like MGMT--in that they’re great.

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Q Magazine

His latest spin-off project sees Steele's musical wanderlust pay dividends. [Mar 2009, p.98]

Under The Radar

The group's debut album, Walking On A Dream, is a highly visual experience. [Spring 2009, p.71]

Pitchfork

Although Empire tries mightily, they collapse underneath too many ideas before the record is even half over.

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The Guardian

I applaud the duo's unpredictability but wish they would calm down a bit.

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Mojo

The opening tunes are strong, but in the later half mannered singing and pretentiousness bring back memories of the Thompson Twins. [Mar 2009, p.110]

Uncut

'Half Mast' and the 'Without You' are exquisite pangs of millionaire's melancholy, even if there aren't enough of them to sustain a whole album. [Mar 2009, p.85]

Observer Music Monthly

The album's surfaces gleam, but its flower-power proselytising never quite dispels the notion of Empire of the Sun as MGMT copyists with pretensions.

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musicOMH.com

It's obvious that they've spent a while cultivating a specific look, but they seem to have only spent half of that time on the album.

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Rolling Stone

Their debut sounds like Europop on Special K.

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Blender

Walking on a Dream initially sounds as familiar as montage music in an HBO midday movie, but it will haunt your dreams.

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All Music Guide

Empire of the Sun's debut offering of electro-pop experiments and dancefloor daydreams is well timed indeed, arriving just as the buzz surrounding MGMT's "Oracular Spectacular" has started to recede.

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PopMatters

Unfortunately, despite the well-developed ‘80s image, the music emulated is not anything worth reviving.

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Dot Music

Much of the album bathes radio-friendly funk-rock in a kind of Balearic after-glow--it conjures that feeling of bittersweet triumph many will have felt as last night becomes this morning, the conquering of a dark that is now needed if sleep and recovery from such an act is to be possible.

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Urb

Thankfully this album is only 10 tracks long, otherwise I don't think I could have sat all the way through it. I had trouble enough as it is.

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Austin Chronicle

Sadly, the intrigue and theatricality wane midway through 'Delta Bay' and never return.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 6.1 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Connor G gave it a7:
The first half of this album is great, the second half is pretty much garbage. The two most popular tracks on the album "Walking on a Dream" and "We are the People" are also the two best tracks on the album. "Half Mast" is a very well done 80's-esque track on the album. But the power remains in the two tracks mentioned before. After the "Delta Bay", the album begins to just free fall. The track "Swordfish Hot Kiss Night" is just a train wreck, sounds like it would be on Flight on the Conchords. The only exception on the 2nd half of the album which is good is the track "Country" which is actually quite beautiful. But this is an album full of hit and misses. But when this album hits, in blows the freaking target up.

Steven M gave it an8:
It is so refreshing to finally hear something different from the usual bull hip-hop that we are forced to listen to on every radio station in the U.S.I am so tired of boring songs with no decent beat or music in them,and I want to puke the more I hear about some thug throwing his "Benjamins" at a stripper in a club.Given the sorry state of U.S. radio and "music"(if you want to call it that)preferences in this country,I doubt the single "Walking on a Dream "will get any airplay when and if it gets released over here.This CD is great overall.

LM BT gave it a7:
I don't understand why a lot of negatism in this album? Sure, the album cover is a cheesy knockoff of the Empire Strikes Back. Sure, you can call them an MGMT ripoff if you may, call them a rip off of Bee Gees if you want to, but they don't really come across near resemblance to them. I find their music the perfect soundtrack for a dream, dead serious, and it even shows in a song called "Walking On A Dream" with the lyrics. The overall dance production of this album is just deep, and sends you a journey to your thoughts. I think PNAU pounded it good, and for the Sleepy Jackson vocalist (aka the MGMT "sound-a-like"), the vocals just blend well with the production and it just sends you to a transcending journey. You can't help it that the singer sounds like the main singer from MGMG, he's not trying to sound like him. He sounds like this in general, you will just have to accept this. But other than that, this album has a big influence on music like Prince, Daft Punk and The Bee Gees.

Branch R gave it a5:
Their voices are horrible, and the intro to their single is piss poor. 'walking on a dream / how can i explain?' The singer spits it into the microphone. The visuals both on the cover and the music video are melodramatic. Although the costumes are GREAT, they do not justify the lack of talent shown here. After the intro, the song does get better, but why should some one have to ignore one part of the song? The whole piece is their vision, and the vision of empire of the sun...is not that great.

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