Breathe In, One More Time

When I first listened to Air's ninth album, Love 2, let's just say I wasn't so carried away by it's greatness. Air is Air, and it's always great background. Sometimes it's much better than that, in that it invokes a strong mood and aura. Love 2 didn't really do that for me.

Yet when I was watching Gossip Girl last night (cut me a break! I'm allowed to have one guilty pleasure, no? And the music is so good, how can you even argue with me? They're all over Julian Casablancas, and this week they played the National's "Start a War"), I caught a second listen to "So Light is Her Footfall." The song is ridiculously sexy. It has those background strings that hang in the air like dust particles in the sunlight. Dude's voice just creeps around, and the piano is all ominous attic stairs-like.



The song haunts me, much like this girl they speak of must haunt them.

Plus, I gotta give 'em kudos - I read on LastFM that they named the song after Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost. And Oscar Wilde is crazy, nutso good. I'm reading An Ideal Husband right now, in fact...

Air - Love 2

Never has a band’s name fit its sound better than Air, the French electro-pop duo whose music floats effortlessly with sparse arrangements and breathy vocals. Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin recorded Love 2 in their brand new studio with intentions of capturing more energy and on-the-go composition than ever before. And jump to life it does, with the psychedelic, sparkling chimes of “Sing Sang Sung,” and the wiggling guitar lines of “African Velvet.” The most daring tune, “Be a Bee,” transforms Air into a new beast entirely, with upbeat drum patterns, smart riffage, and croaking robot vocals. Not satisfied with an album of background music, the duo experiments with bumblebee-like walls of sound, chug-a-chug drums, and smatterings of analog keyboards. Most of the album is a sweet ode to women, as the title alludes. “So Light is Her Footfall” claims “she is an angel,” while “Tropical Disease” lets climbing piano scales and glockenspiel work as their very own professions of love. Fans of Air will embrace Love 2 as a great record of soaring love tunes, just in time for the fall breeze. New listeners will have a nice introduction to an evolving band with an always-soothing sound.