Walking on a Dream by Empire of the Sun

Walking on a Dream, the October 2008 debut from Empire of the Sun, is the sound of two Australians from other bands joining forces in a burst of glitter: Luke Steele of the Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of Pnau. The pair produced it with Peter Mayes and Donnie Sloan, and Mayes recorded and mixed it through 2007 at Soundworks Music Studio in Sydney, with extra recording by Chris Vallejo at Linear Recording in the same city.

It's synth-pop with its arms flung wide: sugary, soaring hooks, shimmering keyboards and a dreamy, sunstruck glow over everything, the kind of record that comes with its own costume department. The title track was the duo's biggest hit worldwide, "We Are the People" followed, and at home the album won 7 ARIA Awards in 2009, Album of the Year among them. Later, Mac Miller sampled "Half Mast" on "The Spins".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.