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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