Ice on the Dune is the second studio album by Australian electronic music duo Empire of the Sun, released on 14 June 2013 by Capitol Records.

[6] The music video for the song, filmed in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah,[7] was directed by Charles Scott and Alex Theurer and also produced by Kelvin Optical.

In an interview with MetroLyrics, Nick Littlemore explained that the writing of the album was influenced by frequent touring and travel and the "tyranny of distance",[16] primarily from family.

[15] In the same interview, Littlemore again reinforced the impact of distance, stating, "When we came back together, initially it felt like a secret affair and it was great, but then as you run deeper into that relationship again, there were things that we communicated to each other.

[...] I think there was a large part of what we were writing about was distance and longing, and I guess some way of kind of sending out a message to the wider world, like that there is a force field that protects all of us and no matter where you are, if you feel for someone and they're in your heart, then you're always with them in some sense.

[23] Critics termed lead single and third track "Alive", a synth-pop-based song with elements of house,[3] "catchy",[24] with Neil Ashman of Drowned in Sound labelling it as "life-affirming electro-fuzz".

[26] Sarah H. Grant of Consequence of Sound likened "Concert Pitch" to a "dance-floor tantrum inspired by the many Neil Tennant had himself",[22] and the song was also said to contain a "punchy disco pulse and wistfully breathy chorus".

[24] Subsequent cut "Surround Sound" was called "incredibly bouncy and fun",[24] and was especially marked for its lyrical content,[22] containing such lines as "Let's push through four dimensions/'Til our brains turn to jelly" and "Meditate with no thinking/Eternally".

"[24] Kevin Catchpole of PopMatters commented that "Empire of the Sun has delivered a well-blended mix of disco, electropop and just plain fun that evokes the greats without copying them outright.

"[3] The Independent called the album "[g]orgeous" and described it as a "seamless suite of elegiac synth-pop, with fairydust-flecked melodies, a perpetually peaking bass end, chord changes that reach into your heart, and fantasising falsetto vocals.

"[2] Phil Mongredien of The Observer remarked that the album "takes [Walking on a Dream's] template—naggingly catchy pop given a euphoric dance twist—and marries it to an even stronger set of songs", adding that "the second half finds them in more restrained—but no less winning—mood".

"[25] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork noted that the album is "certainly bigger, and more purposefully stadium-scaled, than its predecessor", while commenting that the duo's "stuff floats off, and the synths carry the whiff not of a beach breeze but of a department-store escalator.

"[19] Jon Dolan of Rolling Stone expressed, "The vintage-Daft Punk cheese platter 'Celebrate' and album-ending Bowie joke 'Keep a Watch' are foamy fun, but too often Ice on the Dune just feels like a lobotomy on the dance floor.

"[32] Mark Beaumont of NME opined that the album's "saving grace is Steele's airy falsetto", but dismissed his contributions, writing, "In trying to reinvent himself as a Bowie-esque future-glam Pop Star, he's been sucked into the sub-Gaga blandness of mainstream music, his aesthetic so costume-party comical it's an unknowing pastiche that takes itself far more seriously than even he seems to realise.