AIR - Talkie Walkie

AIR

Talkie Walkie

(Source)

Fond of music that's pleasant on the ear, but worried that by admitting such a fact you'll lose your street cred? If so, then French band Air might just be what you've been searching for.

On their latest album, Talkie Walkie, Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin return to what they do best: singing that's as effortlessly cool as it is easy. Each track is a perfectly crafted space pop beauty. You'd expect nothing less from a band famed for making "chill-out" music all the rage with their acclaimed late 90s debut Moon Safari.

Cherry Blossom Girl, with its gentle guitar pickings, pitter-patter beats and woozy keyboards is pure rapture on record, while Universal Traveller's haunting synthesisers should give you goosebumps.

The graceful harmonies are topped throughout by wide-eyed and whimsical lyrics provided by the Gallic duo, who are more often than not pre-occupied with the fairer sex.

Perhaps it's strange then that the twosome's vocals are processed until they sound almost asexual. Oddly enough though, the naive nature of the lyrics complements the intricate musical layers agreeably, like the icing on a cake.

But soppy ballads these are not, as a slightly unearthly tone is never too far off. This is music for sweet dreams.

Surfing On A Rocket, for example, sounds like it has been nicked from the soundtrack of a kitsch 70s sci-fi show. And Alone In Kyoto perfectly sums up that daunting but exhilarating feeling of being on your own in a foreign land.

You might recognise it from the recent flick Lost In Translation. Without doubt, an improvement on their patchy previous effort 10 000 Hz Legend, but perhaps more importantly, right up there in Moon Safari's stratosphere, too. In short, this is dance music your mother would approve of.