Air - Love 2

Air’s previous effort, 2007’s Pocket Symphony was bound to be forgotten as the down-tempo French-electro darlings made the least possible amount of impression out of Jarvis Cocker (Pulp) and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy) behind the mic and did their best not to mix their glass of distilled water with anything that evokes a single neuron. The album was too vacant to be even recognized; minimal piano; a shivering hand on an acoustic guitar and a drum machine. The amalgam could produce no color but gray. And when you compare it to juicy dreamy soundscapes of 1998's Moon Safari, 2003's Talkie Walkie, the ambient beauty of Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides soundtrack or even Air’s most unappreciated album 10,000 Hz Legend, Pocket Symphony lacked a single reason to even have a release date.

The pleasant news is the duo’s latest release i.e. Love 2. And this time the futuristic nature of the band owes a lot to 70s nutritious melodies and not anything post-millennium. Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, the masterminds behind the recipe of Amour, Imagination and Rêve, have wisely made up their minds to bring a great deal of melody back to their immaculate world and this very approach is the key to Love 2’s charming moments : two alluring instrumentals that glitter. I’m talking about “Be A Bee” and “Eat My Beat” and how the latter earns a huge dose of classic rock aura for the record. As for the pop essence of Air, we still have tunes a la “So Light Is Her Footfall” that serves a fashionable delicate ear with bon appetite well or you might even find pleasure in less sexy but still sexy songs such as “Sing Sang Sung” and “Love”. And if you anticipate a travel-friendly mood from these Versailles aliens, have fun with “Tropical Disease” with its piano-xylophone-flute tranquility. I guess it's the instumentals on the album that elevates its musical density this time.

Love 2 brings back some promising thought balloons: the guys are not running out of ideas (not a Zero 7 kind of band, you know!!) as they have found a brave new color to paint our minds with; Air remains a defining modern-pop band despite their occasional downfalls; and to conclude our post, they still have a vicious desire to entertain us. Glad to have them back on the track.

[mp3] Air "So Light Is Her Footfall"