Eager to prove their songwriting smarts and knowledge of traditionalist
pop
on their sophomore work, French band
Air
pulled back slightly from the milky
synth pop
of their 1998 debut,
Moon Safari
.
10,000 Hz Legend
is a darker work, just as contemplative and unhurried as its predecessor, but part of a gradual move from drifting, almost pastoral melancholia to a downright post-modern helplessness in league with
Radiohead
are still tremendously effective producers, and have actually expanded their palate with a surprising array of
instrumentation (acoustic guitars, flutes, pianos, a harmonica, harps, and many strings) to file alongside the countless trilling synthesizers and machine sequencers. The two lead-off tracks,
"Electronic Performers"
and
"How Does It Make You Feel,"
are breathtaking productions that exploit the same robot-weariness tendencies that made
"Sexy Boy"
(from
) an
alternative
hit. Still, those detached retro-vocoder treatments sound so much more passe in 2001 than when the duo first tried them out in 1996.
Jason Falkner
Beck
, a pair of equally hardworking slacker-pop icons, appear (respectively) on the next two tracks, the tongue-in-cheek single
"Radio #1"
and an excellent morning-after jam named
"The Vagabond."
Again, the production is stellar, but these find
stranded between
art rock
, caught in the trap of trying to make great
music yet never sounding particularly studied or concerned about it.
Falkner
pops up again on
"Lucky and Unhappy"
"People in the City,"
a pair of album standouts that subvert any
inclinations with a raft of bridges and breakdowns among the layers of production.
"Wonder Milky Bitch"
is another precisely studied track, a haze of lunar-desert
directly evocative of
country-pop
classicist
Lee Hazlewood
, and
"Radian"
brings
back to the instrumental textures of their early work. Fans and involved listeners are definitely rewarded with increased dividends after multiple listens, but even they may wish for an album that harked back to the simpler days of the
Premiers Symptomes
EP and
. ~ John Bush