Air - Pocket Symphony

Air, are yellow bellied cowards from France. And the duo have a new record out.

I like Air. They remind me of days of yore. In fact, many years ago their “Moon Safari” album was just about everywhere, along with Groove Armada’s “Vertigo” album. The music was always cropping up on holiday shows, house selling shows and as incidental music in any programme that involved sunshine in the background of a scene.

Whenever I see the names of Air and Groove Armada, I think of two things. The first being Judith Chalmers’ big fat satsuma head, sitting by a beach, drinking a Jamaican mans sex wee from a halved coconut, telling us how wonderful her holiday is. The second thing I think of is my mates crawling up the walls of a dingy flat, chewing their faces off, looking for another line and wondering why the fuck I’m standing there in a chef’s uniform and a plate full of bacon sarnies.

Aye, those were the days, when Air’s “Moon Safari” wasn’t just the soundtrack to every fucking programme on TV; it was also the soundtrack to a handful of twenty-something’s summers.

I’ve lost Air since then, and Groove Armada for that matter. My mates have moved onto harder drugs, whilst I’ve became even more hermit like and fell out of love with the hedonistic days of Ibiza, that I can no longer handle. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t have a listen to the latest offering from the duo of the land that eats horses.

This is really quite pleasant. It’s in no way arduous to listen to, the music just floats about. It would be equally enjoyable to lie listening in the dark, lie listening in the sun, or lie on a dog-hair covered carpet in some dingy flat on a comedown.

It’s just like a magical summers dream. The first song, “Space Maker”, begins with what sounds like Ian Botham (OK, I can’t think of any French cricketers) tapping two cricket stumps together. And you don’t get much more summer time than cricket do you?

Then the album just drifts off, it’s easy listening stuff. Air haven’t even bothered to try and put any big pop songs on here, just nice, easy listening. Jarvis Cocker appears on “One Hell Of A Party”, which could almost be the come down to Pulp’s “Sorted for E’s and Wizz”. In fact, it’s so grim that it’d probably put even the most well equipped junkie on a bad trip.

My favourite song is “Left Bank”, and if not only because the vocals could be Elliott Smith talking to me from beyond the grave, but the Jose Gonzalez style guitar, most recognisable in his murder of The Knife’s “Heartbeat”, does get annoying.

Overall though, this is just lovely.

But that’s the thing, as much as it’s "just lovely”, that’s pretty much all it is. It’s not the best album in the world, it’s not even Air’s best album, it just is what it is, just a nice chill out album. So I suppose if that’s what you want to do, then it’ll work.

I’ll probably burn this onto a CD in a few months time, put it on at a barbecue at a mates house, don the chef’s uniform and make my mates some bacon sarnies all over again. Good times.


The Nigel Godrich produced album was released on the 5th of March.