Air: Pocket Symphony

Air wafted into the public consciousness in a whiff of smoky Gauloises, French glam and hazy late-’90s ‘Paris is the new black’ atmosphere. However, come 2007 that whiff feels desperately stale. With their sonic palette widened ever so slightly from soft, plinky-plonky music to soft plink-plonky coma music, ‘Pocket Symphony’ sure does drift over you like a duvet of mood-stabilising drugs. Even when Jarvis does his best troubled troubadour (two parts Scott Walker, one part Serge Gainsbourg) on ‘Hell Of A Party’ he can’t save things. Earlier this year JB Dunckel proclaimed: “We like to change all the time. If we don’t change our sound, we’ll be dead.” So does that mean that Air are, in fact, dead? Mais oui!

Priya Elan

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