Air – The Light Appears

5. Pink Floyd – Set Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Song): Early in 2024 I had a job that required me to regularly travel on wintry roads in rural Manitoba. One of the few highlights of those trips was listening to this Pink Floyd song from 1968’s A Saucerful of Secrets album. The spacey, atmospheric track is both eerie and calming at the same time. On my travels, blowing snow and passing cars would light up the starlit night while white knuckling it home.

4. Air – Moon Safari 25th Anniversary Edition (Album): Through it’s 25th anniversary release, it was a treat to get to go back and re-listen to Air’s 1998 debut album over and over and over again. While I travelled through Europe in 1999, the modern sounding retro album was still regularly being played in hostels and pubs across the continent. The singles “Kelly Watch The Stars” and “Sexy Boy” still make the skin tingle with their greatness. The 25th anniversary edition adds another disc of odds and sods to this essential 90s album.

3. David Bowie – Station to Station (Album): Working through the catalogue of David Bowie is a labour of love. His tenth studio album is one I had been looking forward to as it is critically acclaimed and favoured by a few knowledgeable friends. Incorporating some of the soul and funk sounds he had been exploring on past albums, this one adds a cocaine European sheen to it. The 10 minute title track takes up 25% of the album’s run time and keeps shifting it’s sound while “Golden Years” is one of his best songs. Another classic Bowie album just before the Berlin years start.

2. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Legend (Album): I’ve had this album for years and had never played it. The songs on this greatest hits set are ubiquitous – they will appear on the radio, TV, youtube, etc all throughout the year. To actually fully listen to these songs one after another is staggering. Each person will have their own favourites as each one is a classic. The work of a genius with his stellar band.

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (Concert): Not the typical item we would write about in this yearly blog post but the Bruce Springsteen concert at the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg on November 13 was extraordinary. One of my top bucket list performers to see, Bruce and the band did not disappoint. Barely stopping for breath between songs, they tore through 27 songs over approximately 3 hours. While I didn’t know many of the songs and there were a few tracks I would like to have heard, the performance was virtually flawless. Absolutely inspiring.

For a brief moment in the mid 90s, electronica was being touted as the next big sound. Both The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers scored big hits with their alternative rock take on the sound that resonated with US audiences. Soon to be eclipsed by Nu Metal and boy bands, it was into this environment that the French duo Air released Moon Safari in 1998. The album was a modern sounding retro take on the downtempo sound, mixing 60s lounge pop with 70s prog and funk.

Nicolaus Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel welcome the listener in with “La Femme D’Argent” and it’s warm bath of synthesized sounds. At seven minutes, it’s the longest song here that picks up gentle steam at the end that incorporates handclaps for a light beat. Two songs feature Beth Hirsch on vocals adding acoustic guitar onto the tracks folktronica sound while “Ce Matin La” is the sound of a sunrise, the come down after a night at the club complete with a trombone.

The album had two big singles. “Sexy Boy” includes a more typical pop structure but with French sung verses and an English chorus. The robust beat and squiggly synths made it dancefloor ready as it went top 20 in the UK. Reportedly about Jaclyn Smith’s character from Charlie’s Angels, “Kelly Watch The Stars” is like a celestial dream with a funk groove and easy listening piano lines, the hook being the repeated vocals of “Kelly watch the stars”. The track is a mesmerizing standout on one of the truly great albums of the 90s.

The extras on this 25^th anniversary edition include an extra disc of rarities and remixes. Particular highlights include the three demos. “Dirty Hiroshima” pushes the beat to the forefront while “New Star” and “Ce Matin” include elements of their album versions but enough differences to make them unique songs. “Sexy Boy” and “Kelly Watch The Stars” appear from a BBC live performance with the latter getting the full rock treatment with electric guitars. Also included is the tour documentary by filmmaker Mike Mills – Eating Sleeping Waiting & Playing. The black and white film follows the band around on several tour stops showing the banal moments of touring – hotel rooms, backstage, awkward interviews, etc.

Moon Safari – 10/10

Extras – 8/10

Tag: Air

Favourite Distant (Re)Discoveries of 2024

Air – Moon Safari (25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2024)