::Air - Talkie Walkie::

In the early 90’s, I used to watch Back to the Future, Part II repeatedly. There was something that was so exciting about jackets that were hair dryers, watching 12 television networks at once, and having a flying skateboard. As I got older, Michael J. Fox’s face was gradually replaced with a faceless Hal 3000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey. My innocent, hopeful vision of the future had slowly begun to change into a more paranoid idea of the unknown.

Air, like those films, have found themselves evolving in the same manner. For their past two full-lengths the electronic/acoustic French duo has been creating a time that does not suit them. Their sound seemed stuck in some kitschy 70’s vision of the future, a time when space travel is common for anyone and everyone, a time that finds us miniscule and in awe of a huge universe.

Ultimately, this sound quickly wore itself out. Moon Safari, their debut and the album most consider their masterpiece, after a few listens seemed too tacky and absurd; too innocent a picture of the unknow. While “La Femme d’Argent” and “Sexy Boy” were great, the rest of the tracks failed to explore very different ground. 10,000 Hz. Legend, their sophomore effort, fared even worse by testing out paranoid experimental soundscapes that were found to be flat, claustrophobic, and uninteresting making them sound like some new-age bores.

Talkie Walkie, I figured, would continue down this road to self-destruction, eventually resulting in an Air track on some gross Ibiza “chill-out” compilation. Surprisingly, Air has not only reclaimed the magic of Moon Safari, but has stripped Safari’s sound to its core, resulting in simple, minimalist compositions. Particularly on “Alpha Beta Gaga” we see an incredibly mature band finding the silence between the notes to be more deadly than the melody.

That is not to say that Air has given up their sense of melancholy, dreamy pop. Every one of Talkie Walkie’s tracks float in those soft harmonies that made Air so memorable in the first place. This time around, the band places those sexy synths and plucked guitars against little more than a dry drum-machine or no rhythm at all. On “Universal Traveler” and “Cherry Blossom Girl” Air uses this exact method of restraint to achieve breathtaking results.

While their sense of melody is approaching impeccable, their sound also finds an impressive cinematic center. “Alone In Kyoto”, a song used in Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation and the album’s centerpiece, is exactly this—a song that undeniably evokes imagery. What, exactly, that is remains up to you.

Because most of the lyrics on Talkie Walkie are about rockets, planets, and space travel in general, there is no doubt that Air is attempting to evoke a visualization of the future. With their simple, mysterious production and nearly perfect sense of spacious melody Air has finally found how to straddle the line between an absurdly glamorous prospect and heavy-handed apocalyptic outlook resulting in a repeatedly enjoyable vision of the next century. I can’t wait for the DVD.