Air
Pocket Symphony

THE REVIEW

Nine years after Moon Safari, the acclaimed debut of the most pampered French duo by worldwide critics, Air returns with an album that some might call "transitional," although after careful listening, the impression is that Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel are still attached to the formula that made them unique from the start.

The dreamy and sly atmospheres of Sexy Boy and Kelly Watch The Stars - the standout singles contained in Moon Safari - have indicated a path for our duo from which they have rarely deviated. In contrast to the evident autarchic style of the previous album Talkie Walkie, where the two sang all the male parts with limited success, the twelve tracks of Pocket Symphony shape up as a sort of soundtrack for a movie yet to be written.

The most accomplished tracks, although predictable in their development, are the two ballads One Hell Of A Party and Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping, respectively entrusted to Jarvis Cocker, former singer of Pulp, and to Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy. The press kit for Pocket Symphony, whose release is scheduled for early March, also informs us that Nicolas Godin has learned from an Okinawan master how to delight us with characteristic oriental instruments: a harp (Koto) and a sort of banjo (Shamisen) very popular in Japan.

The single Once Upon A Time is a typical calling card of Air: a piano supporting the entire structure, a drum machine as discreet as it is bland, a lyric that calling it naif is doing it a favor, and the usual mangled English of our heroes. Dunckel and Godin never fail to deliver, and the unsuspecting listeners are left with two alternatives: to abstain from their sterile exercises in style or to be ensnared once again, with the awareness that the Air of nine years ago are now just a faded memory.