Air
Love 2

I must say that this new work by Air has once again enchanted me. The ignorant reviews I've read so far confirm that today's music criticism scene is full of clichés and a complete lack of judgment based on actual content. The most banal cliché of the pseudo-music (and film) critic is that no sequel will ever be like the first installment.

"It will never be like the first." WHAT NONSENSE!

Enough with this nonsense. I think that an artist matures over the years, refines, and embarks on new paths. Everyone expects a group to replay their triumphant debut. Air is a magical group, their space music is among the most beautiful things you can listen to in today's light music scene. Their career is one of continuous experimentation, and this style has turned up the nose of some music critics accustomed to linear styles and to whom the word "experiment" smells bad.

"10,000 Hz Legend" was a masterpiece. I don't care if it was underrated.

Now the ingenious French return to the suave and harmonic sounds of their origins, but it was absolutely not a clumsy attempt to copy that milestone "Moon Safari" but to recreate its atmospheres in a more mature and rich way. After the very sweet "Pocket Symphony," extraordinary but perhaps a little too ambient laxative, Air rediscover the electro-pop spirit and the sensuality of the mythical first episode.

So let's say it: YES!!! This sequel is as good as "Moon Safari"!!! And to hell with the critics!

The recipe is the one that made us love this group: an intelligent use of synthesizers and moogs, refined and visionary instrumental harmonies, Pink Floydian psychedelia, hypnotic rhythms, experimental sounds combined with the charm of that robot pop offspring of Kraftwerk so loved in the 80s, vocal sampling rendered alive and sensual by an immense and inexhaustible class.

"Love 2" is another "waterfall of stardust".

In this album, the use of electronics returns massively, as in the beautiful and visionary "Do The Joy" with its almost deafening synthesizer stretches and a final melody that transports you to a distant planet. Very akin to Moon Safari is the excellent "Love" with a sampled vocal repeated continuously over synth, organ, and flute riffs, a jewel that almost touches poetry. The only flaw of the album is undoubtedly the short duration of the songs, which make this collection seem like a radio version album of singles. Some tracks barely last more than two minutes. Nevertheless, some tracks are appreciated even in their brief duration, like the psychedelic "Eat My Beat".

The vein of the album is less tear-jerking than its predecessor, instead having a remarkable dose of marked rhythms and sounds, with a much wider use of drum machines and acoustic guitars. There remains space to dream with mature and endlessly refined pieces like the enchanting "You Can Tell It To Everybody". The second single "Sing Sang Sung" is naïve and sly, and although it keeps a certain class in sounds and melodies, it seems a bit out of place compared to the album's style.

Recommended for lovers of refined and experimental music. Perhaps, unlike Moon Safari, which could be recommended even to electronic music detractors, I would not recommend this new production to those who do not like artificial sounds, here used quite massively.

The perfect sequel to a debut that made history.