Two Vines - Review
With the release of their third studio album, outside of the box electro music duo Empire of the Sun, sought to capture the beauty and tranquility of nature with a breath of Hawaii infused into their synths. They make an admirable effort at making a summer’s afternoon condensed into an album. Warm and soft in its electro/EDM beats, the music sounds almost breathy over the lyrics of Luke and Nate. Ephemeral and floaty, it carries along softly even when it picks up the pace in some tracks.
But like a summer’s afternoon, after a while everything begins to blend together into a rainbow of glam rock and flamboyance. Simply put, many of the tracks here sound pretty similar to those that sit around it. It can lull you into a sense of peacefulness rather easily, but it keeps anything from sticking out. If it was a roller coaster, there would be no hills or valleys, just a long tack of coasting. It can bring a bright hint of summer into a dreary October day, but it really can’t do anything more.
A few songs do manage to catch your ear by breaking through the formula, like “Friends” or “There’s No Need”, “Way 2 Go”, “Ride” or “ZZZ” which actually manage to bring the lyrics a little closer to the forefront instead of hiding them behind the music. It feels almost like they are whispering into my ear with some tracks. When a song does manage to break through, it does a really good job, but what this album desperately needs is for some cuts to be made. Not all fifteen tracks need to be here, and it seems to pad out the album in a way that really isn’t needed. There is a solid core buried here, but it is covered up with monotony that prevents it from being unearthed. Which is unfortunate.
2.5/5
Tracklist:
1. Before
2. High and Low
3. Two Vines
4. Friends
5. There’s No Need
6. Way to Go
7. Ride
8. Digital Life
9. First Crush
10. ZZZ
11. To Her Door
12. Keystone
13. Lend Me Some Light
14. Welcome to My Life
15. Walking on a Dream
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Tom has been writing about media since he was a senior in high school. He likes long walks on the beach, dark liquor, and when characters reload guns in action movies.
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