Music Review: Air - Pocket Symphony
Air has always been fantastic at making seamless art- a soundtrack for our waking life, and a concert for our sleeping one. Of course, this has always made them a target for scoring films (Sofia Coppola seems particularly obsessed with them, employing their help on both Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation). But when it comes to their album work, they have a tendency to get lost in the (no pun intended) airiness of their sound. All this changed when Talkie Walkie hit the shelves in 2005. They used their usual amount of insane production, but they focused their concerns on the ultimate end product of the songs. This led to tracks like “Surfing on a Rocket” and “Cherry Blossom Girl” becoming as close to radio hits as they could manage.
If Talkie Walkie was their finest pop iteration, consider Pocket Symphony somewhere between that and their film music. The record begins particularly well- second track, the piano-drenched “Once Upon a Time,” could be their most gorgeous pitch-shifted vocal performance to date. After that, Jarvis Cocker makes a strong guest vocal appearance on the Japanese Koto experiment “One Hell of a Party.” Other exceptional tracks include the smooth guitar turnarounds in “Left Bank” and the sunlit interlude “Mer Du Jupon.”
Besides those headliners, a solid two-thirds of Pocket Symphony is spent conveying moods in slithering, long instrumental cuts and sporadic vocal mirages. Rhodes Piano closer “Night Sight,” the tip-toeing “Photograph,” and “Lost Message” (eerily reminiscent of Jon Brion’s work on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) all relegate Air to this strange existence where they’re soundscaping a movie invisible to all but them. Some might call this a letdown after the promise of accessibility shown on Talkie Walkie, but is there really anything wrong with their subtler work?
There’s proof the dual personalities of Air can co-exist. “Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping” is the perfect summation of why Pocket Symphony is their most versatile performance to date. With a strong melodic arrangement and an interlocking collaboration with Divine Comedy’s vocalist Neil Hannon, this track is testament that Air’s uncanny ability to make music for your conscious and subconscious is alive and well. Here’s hoping that Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel are comfortable enough with themselves to continue unflinchingly down their musical paths.
Check out Air's Pocket Symphony on iTunes today:
