After everything with K-pop in August, I just didn’t have the time that a new Empire of the Sun album deserved. Now, though, Ask That God has gotten my full attention.
Even though I was a bit let down with their live performance last year, I couldn’t help but feel ecstatic at the promise of new music. And not just a new single, but a whole new album! It had been eight years since their last release, so I was starting to think it may never happen again. Turns out it can just take these guys a lifetime to find their way to each other again to make magic happen. For me at least, they are fully worth the wait, and their music just gets better and better over time.
With Ask That God, I feel like I got classic Empire of the Sun sound, which is meant to be a little bit quirky and really fun. Nothing could encapsulate the fun feeling more than their second single, “Music on the Radio.” This song is so unbelievably catchy, and I think everyone must experience it at least once in their life. In my opinion, this should have been the lead single off the record. “Changes” had a fun bass and 70s-style beat, but the verses were far superior to the chorus, and songs just really shouldn’t be that way.
Disco was the most prominent sound on the record, with bops like “AEIOU,” and “Happy Like You.” They also seemed to tap into a bit of an 80s sound with “The Feeling You Get” and “Cherry Blossom.” The latter sounded the most like a classic Empire of the Sun song to me. With that being said, Empire of the Sun are an odd band, and that was on full display in “Rhapsodize.” They tried to switch it up on some other tracks, like “Wild World” and “Friends I Know,” but they just really fell flat for me. Perhaps the other strongest song off the record was “Television.” It just made me think about seeing them live for some reason, and hearing Nick join in just makes it that much more enjoyable.
I hope these guys have a bigger US tour in the future and that Nick joins along this time, but in the meantime, I will just plug in and enjoy the new tunes any time I can.