Now that even Lady Gaga is mournfully hosing off the greasepaint, it’s a joy to hear Empire of the Sun still making unashamedly boggle-eyed, bewigged concept albums. Two Vines is, of course, about nature’s benign-Triffid reclamation of city life. More importantly, it’s about giant headdresses, talking nonsense in interviews, and making music that hurtles towards infinite horizons on hoverboards during a summer’s day that lasts a year (1976, presumably). True, if Walking on a Dream gave you aural diabetes, this proffers cure by chocolate. Yes, it’s over-AutoTuned, and the ballads are still rubbish. But this somehow smooshes Cut Copy, ELO and Daft Punk into a honeyed mess that leaves you licking the bowl and twitching for more.
