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Posted by Andrew Greenhalgh
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02:29 PM Wednesday, 20 June 2007 |
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The past year or so has found me consciously attempting to expand my musical palette. Given the growing popularity of Sufjan Stevens, I began with Illinoise and found much to enjoy. Rumors of Icelandic troupe Sigor Ros led me to their waters, and as I partook I reveled in the soaring sound discovered. Others spoke glowingly of the group, Anathallo, and as I drank deep from the waters of Floating World, I was refreshed. All of these experiments in musical variety left me with something to ponder, something to go back to. That's why I found myself surprisingly disappointed with my next experiment, a careful listen to French duo Air's latest, Pocket Symphony.
The fifth endeavor by collaborators J.B. Dunckel and Nicolas Godin finds them broadly incorporating some new instruments into their mix such as the Japanese koto and the banjo-like shamisen yet the overall result isn’t what you’d expect. Playing out like a misguided art-house film soundtrack, the band seems to struggle with its mission here.
The album opens with “Space Maker”, a moody instrumental and is followed by the sleepy “Once Upon a Time”, replete with quirky background vocals. British rocker Jarvis Cocker lends his vocal support to a sonorous “One Hell of a Party” with mixed results while “Napalm Love” is admittedly creative yet lacking. “Mayfair Song” is another plodding instrumental and is finally followed up by “Left Bank” which offers a subtle shift away from the prior melancholy.
The remaining tracks fail to impress as well. “Photograph” is another trippy song that incorporates some surreal vocal performances and while “Mer du Japon” and “Somewhere Between Waking and Sleeping”, the latter showcasing the talents of Neil Hannon, attempt to infuse the monotony with some life the attempt is simply not enough. With tracks like “Lost Message” with it’s funeral dirge meets Burt Bacharach vibe and the sulky instrumentation of “Night Sight” to close things out, this album leaves one feeling a bit askew.
Pocket Symphony does not suffer from a lack of artistic talent or performance. Likewise, it does not suffer from any major flaws in production. It’s flawlessly carried out and calculated. But it’s that very sense of cold calculation that leaves one feeling empty and uninterested after a listen. There is very little to engage the listener here. Air seems to have just made some poor choice creatively and it’s resulted in an album that summons the dreaded critical comment, “Boring.”
Perhaps my dissonance with this album is based upon some preconceived notion. Perhaps I expected Air’s Pocket Symphony to be something it just couldn’t be. Maybe my artistic palette is just not ready for the postmodern French approach just yet. Maybe I just need to listen to it again but I’m not considering that a great likelihood. For, the honest fact is that after a few listens, I found myself not reaching for the repeat button on my CD player but for my blanket and pillow as I found myself lulled to sleep. Comments (1) |
