21 January 2013

21st Jan - Air's Talkie Walkie


Artist – Album: Air – Talkie Walkie
Released: 21st January 2004
Sounds Like: Airy

Air announced their arrival back in 1998 (16th January 1998 to be exact, check out that day’s blog!) with their brilliant debut Moon Safari, a critical and commercial success that had a terrific blend of pumping electro-pop and mesmerizing soundscapes. Their real follow up, 10,000 Hz Legend (in-between they had contributed the soundtrack to the film The Virgin Suicides), spectacularly failed to elicit the same response. Detractors complained of overproduction and lack of focus, and, to be perfectly honest, times had moved on from the robot vocoders and simple synthpop of yesteryear. Talkie Walkie, thankfully, was a definite return to form.

Stylistically, it is closer to the cool, instrumental tunes from their first album then the fun bouncy hits, but that’s not to say that it takes itself too seriously. Instead, there’s an almost cloud-like, fluffy feel to the record: yes there’s nothing here you’d think of as a single, but it remains a very entertaining listen throughout.

You might recognise the whistled intro to ‘Alpha Beta Gaga’ from Orange adverts, whilst ‘Run’ and ‘Alone in Kyoto’ have appeared in various films such as Lost In Translation. ‘Cherry Blossom Girl’, ‘Surfing On a Rocket’ and ‘Universal Traveler’ are beautiful gossamer tunes that would not be out of place on album from indie dream pop specialists Beach House. They may not quite reach the heights of their fabulous first but this is still a fine third.

Albumaday... rating:   7/10

1.       Venus – 4:04
2.       Cherry Blossom Girl – 3:39
3.       Run – 4:12
4.       Universal Traveler – 4:22
5.       Mike Mills – 4:26
6.       Surfing on a Rocket – 3:43
7.       Another Day – 3:20
8.       Alpha Beta Gaga – 4:39
9.       Biological – 6:04
10.   Alone in Kyoto – 4:51

Listen to ‘Cherry Blossom Girl’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUrEn7xmNE  



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