This is, without a doubt, the single most gorgeous album on this entire 2000s list. It's an album to fall in love to; an album to stare at sunsets to. What Air have done here is take everything gorgeous about 80s pop and soft rock and jettison everything cheesy and sentimental and produce a near-masterpiece. It's the best thing they've ever done--the more famous
Moon Safari, while great, doesn't have the melodic and emotional directness that this one does. Hardly a second is given over to aimless "pretty" synthesizers, as would become a problem on later Air releases, and every bit of it is filled up music that is simultaneously light and deep. I have no idea how they did this. Air have always stood on the edge of the proverbial knife--their music is always just this close to being kitsch, the kind of stuff they play to ease your pain while your teeth are being yanked out. Not this time. Just listen to something like "Venus"--never before have I heard a song that so openly courts derisive laughter, the lyrics in their entirety being the following: "You could be from Venus/I could be from Mars/We would be together/Lovers forever/Care for each other/You could live in the sea/And I could be a bird/We would be together/Lovers forever/Care for each other/if you were an illusion/I would make it real/We would be together/Lovers forever/Care for each other/If you walk in the sun/I would be your shadow/We would be together/Lovers forever." That ain't Shakespeare, but how Air make it work is to eschew all "emotion" in the lyrics, reciting them like robots, so that the words themselves become sounds, almost a religious chant. The song is, quite simply, one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard in my life. #191? Shamefully low. Buy this album. Give it to your girlfriend and she will marry you. I guarantee it (not a guarantee).
MY RATING:
9.7
Air - "Venus"
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