Music Review: Air - Walkie Talkie

Air's Talkie Walkie is an album that comes with much expectation and uncertainty. Their masterful 2000 debut, Moon Safari, vaulted the French duo out of the often-stigmatized and even more often mediocre conglomerate of late '90s electronica groups, earning them critical and popular successes and placing them on a plateau to which only a few artists in their genre had ascended (Aphex Twin, Stereolab). Then came their sophomore 2001 effort 10,000 Hz Legend, an album that saw Air's pop genius deny itself for the sake of artsy weirdness. Those longing for the magic of Moon Safari were disappointed with this album, and so a certain amount of nervousness accompanies Talkie Walkie, the latest installment in Air's artistic progression.

Then headphones go on, the album begins and all nervousness fades. Talkie Walkie is not the same Air of Moon Safari, but rather a balance between the poppy moodscapes of that album and the experimental songwriting of Legend. Melodies take hold quickly, and rich, layered texture blankets everything with a cinematic quality--the soundtrack at a climactic or quietly contemplative point in a personal, plotless movie. Things seem to slow down, as if suspended with the lightness of the music. It is background music that changes everything in the foreground, a trait evident in Air's score work in the films The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation.

From the latter movie comes the high point of the album, "Alone in Kyoto." Guitar and piano riffs dance softly over a clock-like beat, capturing the silent loneliness of lying in bed, listening to rain hit the roof. A few tracks venture closer toward the disjointed postmodernism of Legend, but even these find their way back to the enveloping mood music of Moon Safari. The track "Run" embodies this duality; its verses are a difficult, broken-music-box glitch beat, but the chorus is a surprising about-face that features one of Air's richest moments.

The album is not, however, without flaws. Despite the powerful melodies and textures, almost-artificial voices and mindless lyrics sometimes hinder spots on the album, most notably in the song "Biological." Although perhaps an unfair comparison, Talkie Walkie doesn't attain the level of artistry of Air's debut, but its solid songcrafting marks a praiseworthy step for an already accomplished group.