Air - Love 2

No, not a Prince album, sadly

The seventh album from – OK, we’ll say it – French duo Air, was the first to be recorded at their new, self-built Atlas studio, and the first to be entirely produced by the pair themselves. But there’s nothing here that they haven’t already done – and done better.

Things start off trying to sound like Moon Safari, with Do The Joy’s bossa rhythm fading in over an abstract wildlife babbling backdrop, before moving into 10,000 Hz Legend-lite prog territory with So Light Is Her Footfall. So far, so Air. Things deteriorate dramatically with Tropical Disease, however, an overlong instrumental sounding like a 1997 Air remix. By the time Sing Sang Sung flops out of your stereo, you’re crying out for a special guest, subjective production hand, or just one of the first three tracks again.

From this low point, it would be a relief to say the record picks up for a strong finish, but there’s nothing of the sort, just the kind of noodling synth nonsense the pair did as a matter of excellence, much more succinctly and evocatively on Moon Safari’s Remember. If the public think this is a return to form, it just highlights the travesty of Air’s wondrous middle period being so woefully overlooked.

2 stars 2 stars

EMI | 5099996639603

Reviewed by Jake Kennedy
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