Je peux le sentir venir dans l' AIR ce soir, oh seigneur

When you start a blog following a GrandTour of your music collection, you have to do two things.

1) Listen to your music collection in alpha/chrono order.

2) Blog it.

I did the first. A good 1140 cd's worth.

In the mean time, I found while catching up that I had blogged about A Fire Inside.

Twice.

Twice, man. I mean, I like them, not quite that much.

Why you work the program. WHY YOU WORK THE PROGRAM!

Ok. So game on.

Let's talk about: Air.

First off, Air is the French Pink Floyd.

True, they didn’t name themselves after American bluesmen. They don’t have a lost member trolling around a French university town, running from fans seeking out his mad genius. And neither of them are the arrogant sumbitches Water or Gilmour are.

But yeah, French Pink Floyd. Long form music, ties with cinematic artistes (Sofia Coppola, you may not have made a good movie since ‘Lost in Translation’ but  you gave us Air) and even though they are largely known for one pop music genre - dance - they pretty much do whatever they want.

So yeah, Gallic Pink Floyd.

That’s not a bad thing. Floyd, even if they became the spark that launched a thousand punk bands, was part of the expansion of rock’s possibilities. And Air likewise expanded the possibilities of 90’s to Aught’s dance and electronic/dance/chill. They seem to come out of an alternative-Euro 70’s that never ended, and avoided all the really bad drugs.

Plus, let’s face it.. in the early 21st century, when we were getting used to the true wired frenzy of the internet non-stop world, starting off on endless war, and realizing how truly fucked as a species we might be, Air had a place. We needed intelligent chill. We needed people who could calm us without knocking us out.

Thanks, Air. Well done on that.

Across the board, I give Air 4 out of 5 stars. As great as they are, they seem to miss a final, transcendent spark that pushes them up to that final notch. Their music, by design, isn’t about hooks or grabbing you. In fact, it demands a little more attention than you might be ready to give. But buy, listen, ideally on a long trip, somewhere you can look out the window, and let the words and music full your headspace.

Like a good Floyd album. With sexier vocoder.

The essential buys are Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie. You like those two, fill in the rest. The quick reviews I did while writing this reinforced the band’s consistency. Grab the two, grab the rest.

Artist: Air           

Album: Moon Safari
Year: 1998
Date Listened in Tour: 7/17/08
Rating: ****
Best Songs: All I Need, Kelly Watch The Stars, Ce Matin La

Album: The Virgin Suicides - Score
Year: 2000
Date Listened in Tour: 7/19/08
Rating: ****
Best Songs: Playground Love/Highschool Lover

Album: Talkie Walkie
Year: 2004
Date Listened in Tour: 7/17/09
Rating: ****
Best Songs: Cherry Blossom Girl, Run, Alone In Kyoto

Album: Late Night Tales
Year: 2006
Date Listened in Tour: 7/19/08
Rating: ****
Best Songs: Lovin’ You- Minnie Ripperton, Let’s Get Lost- Elliot Smith, The Old Man’s Back Again- Scott Walker

Late Night Tales is compilation series featuring mixes by different artists, which I recommend tracking down the series when you get the chance.

Album: Pocket Symphonies
Year: 2007
Date Listened in Tour: 7/19/08
Rating: ****
Best Songs: Left Bank, Photograph, Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping

Album: Love 2

Year: 2009
Date Listened in Tour: 9/20/09
Rating: ****
Best Songs: So Light is Her Footfall. African Velvet.

Vocoder Heaven. I imagine them partying with Daft Punk at some point, and ‘Love 2’ being the goody bag.

And now.. ONWARDS WITH THE BLOGGING!