Love 2 by Air
LABEL: Aircheology

With good reason, AIR have been critical darlings for the better part of a decade. Each new album is highly anticipated and from fashion show runways to indie film soundtracks, their tunes are quite often embraced and proudly imbedded in artistic media worldwide.

The Frenchmen have been fairly prolific since their 1999 debut, producing a healthy string of albums that for all intents and purposes, were good. But truthfully, nothing more than just good. Definitely not great. Nothing ever seemed quite as impressive as the early stuff and nothing ever really got the cool kids on the internets all worked up into a hot, seething lather the way Moon Safari, Premiers Symptomes and The Virgin Suicides Soundtrack did way back when.

“Love 2, however is seemingly a sign that they’ve broken through the doldrums and come out on the other side sounding a lot like the band we all fell in love with once upon a time. ”

Given their star power and relative absence of negative critical feedback, it shouldn’t be a shocker that their latest effort, Love 2, is actually very, very good. It’s just that for anyone who’s been listening the last several years, it’s felt like Nicolas Godin and Jean Benoît Dunckel have fallen into some kind of unexciting sonic rut. Love 2, however is seemingly a sign that they’ve broken through the doldrums and come out on the other side sounding a lot like the band we all fell in love with once upon a time.

On Love 2 the guys turn up the volume from the first note, plowing through an aggressive “Do The Joy” that is jam-packed with more emotion and excitement than the last two albums combined. Big, stoney rock guitars meld into whining Black Moth Super Rainbow analog pulses and pleasantly peppered in keys and distorted vocals.

And then, just like that, the aggression plummets and Premiers Symptomes era AIR bubbles back to life on “Love.” Breathy vocals and a little bossa nova shake and shimmy follow a myriad of thoughtfully minute accoutrements that would feel right at home on a new Four Tet disc.

“...there’s no question AIR is a changed group and Love 2 is unfolding a lot like a re-imagined greatest hits album, smartly plucking inspiration from the band’s back catalogue”

By the time “Be A Bee” roars to life, there’s no question AIR is a changed group and Love 2 is unfolding a lot like a re-imagined greatest hits album, smartly plucking inspiration from the band’s back catalogue (this particular track is vintage Moon Safari). Some may see this as a weak creative strategy, but when it sounds this good, why bother being critical?

The album peaks near the middle of the lineup with “Heaven’s Light,” a piano driven mid-tempo delight that rides pleasantly monotone vocals and a synthetic siren that’s as smooth as cream and reminiscent of a far off train whistle heard faintly over a far away field.

Are they back? Well, it’s not entirely clear they were ever really gone, but anyone who had forgotten how good it felt to be excited by an AIR album should be pleasantly surprised by first impressions of Love 2.


REVIEWED BY ALEC BRINEGAR
ALEC'S FAVORITE TRACKS: "Love" • "Heaven's Light" • "Be a Bee"