All-Time Albums: #100

AIR Moon Safari
(1998)

La Femme D’Argent 7:08
Sexy Boy 4:57 (UK single, #13)
All I Need 4:28 (UK single, #29)
Kelly Watch The Stars 3:44 (UK single, #18)
Talisman 4:16
Remember 2:34
You Make It Easy 4:00
Ce Matin La 3:38
New Star In The Sky 5:38
Le Voyage De Penelope 3:10

 

For a brief but wonderful moment (okay, perhaps a few months), inbetween the dying breaths of Britpop and the stirrings of a new brand of boyband/girlband dominance, the “French Band” Air were THE sound to die for. Tracks from the album could be heard in adverts and background music for TV documentaries, if a touch of exoticism was required. Or maybe just a nice bit of fuzzy, slightly retro futurism to go with the pictures.

If, like me, you grew up in the ’70s and then had French lessons in the ’80s that drew upon visions of the future (European-style, naturally) with pencil drawings of skyscrapers, jetpacks, minimalistic metropolis and flying cars, then Moon Safari – in everything from the artwork to that beautifully analogue sound – evoked and recaptured that style. The instrumental tracks were like a less frenetic Jean Michel Jarre, with nods to lounge music which had acquired a growing cachet during the 90s.

Sexy Boy was an irresistible single, Kelly Watch The Stars an obvious follow-up, but All I Need is probably my pick of the album. As with nearly every record included here, there aren’t any weak links.