Well, alright, the first album of 2009 to really tickle me. It’s Walking On A Dream by Empire Of The Sun, who are Luke Steele from The Sleepy Jackson (whose first album, the Australian Recording Industry Association award-winning Lovers, I enjoyed very much in 2003 – Good Dancers a 6 Music staple ie. we playlisted the arse out of it) and someone called Nick Littlemore, a fellow Australian of whom I’ve never heard but is apparently in a dance duo called Pnau. Anyway, it’s a gorgeous mix of soaring vocals, every sound you can make on a guitar and a brilliantly relentless, crunching electronic beat, a bit like Stars On 45. I’m getting Beach Boys … Fleetwood Mac … Supertramp … Air … I’m getting on with writing my review of it for Word. It’s released on 23 February. The single is on YouTube – but I warn you, they’re not pretty!
Incidentally, Steele – a lovely, gentle, thoughtful, genuine guy, if decidely odd – came onto my 6 Music show and he had the hardest handshake I have ever experience in all my 21 years of shaking rock stars’ hands. I will never forget it. It still hurts.
Never Knowingly Underwhelmed 