To me, this one of the most perfect songs released in recent years. It's hard to pin down what makes this track so affecting - the instrumentation is mostly synth; there is also an understated, slightly Bowie-style vocal. Overall I think it is the music itself - the fragile chord sequence and instrumentation evoke a strange sense of lost summer memories.
from Virgin Suicides, available on CD (AstralWerks)
19 Apr 01 ·secularus: This track is sublime. Atmosphere to the nth degree. Sophia Coppola is very lucky to have a gem like this as the pervasive track to her film, The Virgin Suicides. Mesmerizing. 22 May 01 ·tinks: that ain't the only reason sofia coppola is very lucky, but that's another story. i agree, i love the entire score to the film.
I think that it is rather telling that the first words you hear on Air's new album are "we are the synchronizers". I have owned this CD for less than 24 hours and am currently on my seventh listen...to some people, that's natural, but not to me. I have to admit, this is quite the anomaly for me in general. It's much, uh, "proggier" than their first record, a fact well-evidenced by the cover art. In fact, it's quite a bit proggier than anything else in my record collection, but I can't seem to get enough of it. I'm having a very difficult time picking a particular song to recommend, so I'm arbitrarily choosing this one. I was a bit worried that I would be disappointed by this, considering how much I love "Premier Symptomes", "Moon Safari" and the "Virgin Suicides" score, but that was not the case. Get this album, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
from 10,000 Hz Legend, available on CD (Astralwerks)
01 Jun 01 ·delicado: I've had a remarkably similar experience with this album; dig the sing along at the end of 'radio #1' as well!
Good music to fall in love to. Classic Air use of Acoustic guitar, french accented voices singing English, and melodious synthesizers.
Fall in love with Air again.
from Everybody Hertz, E.P. (10,000 Hz Remixes) (Astralwerks 11833) available on CD - Everybody Hertz E.P. (Astralwerks)
To me this is one of the best pop songs of the last 10 years or so where just everything falls perfectly into place and couldn't be bettered in any way. It's insanely catchy without ever getting annoying, it's immaculately produced with the whole instrumentation blending together perfectly (including extremely lush synths all over the place provided by Daft Punks Thomas Bangalter) and it doesn't wear off even after listening to it for ages. I was glad to see this track finally getting some exposure on the "Lost In Translation" soundtrack recently. If only they would write more songs of that caliber, but instead both albums they released to date are rather patchy.