AR: Talkie Walkie

Air - Talkie Walkie (2004)

• Slick, French pop-electronica featuring strummed / plucked guitars and banjos, synths and pianos, persistently subdued vocals, and the just the right amount of here-and-there sound effects (whistles, strings, flutes, whathaveyou).
• Despite all that instrumentation, maintains a very separated, almost minimalist feel throughout. A nice little busy but not busy paradox.
• Has the feel of an instrumental album, even though the majority of tracks have plenty of lyrics. So it's in the "voice as instrument" box, with the majority of those voices coming in the dreamy and/or Eno-ish Ambient IV end of the continuum. (See esp. "Run").
• The razor's edge strength and flaw here is that dreamy quality. While it's lush / gorgeous throughout, there's a lack of tension that tends to make this disc fade into the, er, subconscious a bit. A neat aesthetic, but one that wears under repeated listens.
• There are a few missteps on the disc because of the aforementioned quality ("Mike Mills," "Another Day," and "Biological"), and the best tracks ("Alpha Beta Gaga" and "Alone in Kyoto") could easily sit as film music (and in the latter case, actually does in Sophia Coppola's Lost In Translation)
• Not Air's best but a good album; this is kinda the epitome of a rec (solid). Don't let my characterization under-emphasize the sleepy beauty here.

Status: Recommended (solid)

Nyet's Fave: "Alpha Beta Gaga"