Pocket Symphony

Air - Pocket Symphony

Pocket Symphony
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Air
Edition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: Astralwerks
Soundtracks:
  1. Space Maker
  2. Once Upon A Time
  3. Hell Of A Party
  4. Napalm Love
  5. Mayfair Song
  6. Left Bank
  7. Photograph
  8. Mer du Japon
  9. Lost Message
  10. Somewhere Between Waking And Sleeping
  11. Redhead Girl
  12. Night Sight

Free Music Notes for Pocket Symphony

Free Music Review: 3 1/2 stars. Listenable, but not their best.
Hit: 3 Stars

I listened to the entire album over on Lala. While there were no bad tracks, I didn't find anything (except Mer du Japon) that excited me as much as Premiers Symptomes. Granted, Air has moved on to a different style. Apparently it is a style that I don't like as much. For one, if they're going to have lyrics, they need to find a better lyricist. Second, the synthesized vocals sound like an emasculated (i.e. castrated) man. I have nothing against castrati personally, but the sound does not appeal to me in pop music. Finally, the compositions themselves, while many are pleasant dreamy tracks that may inspire daydreams and induce calm, did not hold my attention. Perhaps there is some musical subtlety that I'm missing, but I don't think so.

It all depends on what you're looking for. I think I will buy Talkie Walkie, which isn't perfect, but has a greater number of quality tracks that draw me back to them again and again. As for this new CD, I believe I will pass. However, if your tastes trend toward ambient music, this may have more appeal for you.

Pocket Symphony Poster

Some bands like to thwart expectations, and Air is one of them. "Spacemaker," the opening of Pocket Symphony, sounds like a cousin to their instrumental retro-lounge "La Femme D'Argent" from 1998's Moon Safari, right down to the electric bass break in the middle. But this isn't a return to their breakthrough sound. "Spacemaker" really does pave the way for an almost classically somnolent outing from the French duo. Air once proclaimed, "In any classical song you can take five seconds of it and make a loop and you make a great pop song with it." I think they took that to heart on an album that echoes Debussy, Bach, and Reich, but which also contains a Beatlesque eclecticism redolent of Revolver. But instead of the Beatles' Indian flourishes, Air look to Japan, using a plucked koto on a couple of tracks, but also a zen garden sense of sonic placement. Although Jarvis Cocker from Pulp and Neil Hannon of Divine Comedy sing on a couple of tunes--adding some emotional gravitas--Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel do most of the vocalizing in their preternatural Munchkins-on-Quaaludes lisp. Air are known for their chilled melancholy, but the mood of Pocket Symphony is introspectively somber. Only "Mer du Japon" rises to a groove, while the rest recline in a luxurious torpor. That mood works especially well on instrumentals like the minimalist cycles of "Night Sight" and the Enoesque "Lost Message," with its circular piano line and ice-sheathed string synthesizers. Pocket Symphony won't yield any pop hits, but it could be the soundtrack to endless rainy afternoons. --John Diliberto
From the creators of the classic albums "Moon Safari" and "Talkie Walkie", Air deliver a career masterpiece, their most seductive and accomplished work to date.

Features guest vocals by Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon (The Divine Comedy).

Includes the single "Once Upon A Time".

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