Cut to the Chase: 'Love 2' is the sixth studio album of Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, and it's a return to form after the likeable-if-patchy 'Pocket Symphony'. Air excel at wrapping their songs in layers of unexpected beauty, and their expertise at pacing is also brought to the fore with this rather lovely effort.
Having long established themselves at the vanguard of atmospheric pop and chillout music before people knew what chillout music even was, there's little for Air to do these days except enjoy themselves. Many would deem such behaviour as a lack of progress, but the simple truth is that Air are so good at what they do, that their musings often come across as effortless. 'Love 2', the ultra-cool Parisian duo's sixth studio album, is another stellar effort from Godin and Dunckel, particularly after the slow-burning 'Pocket Symphony'. With its focus primarily on ambience, there are no distracting guest appearances by the likes of Jarvis Cocker here, and the album is all the better for it.
Several songs incorporate semi-sleazy, Hendrix-like guitar sounds beautifully into their slinky bodies ('Do the Joy'), and you can easily imagine a band like The Animals envying the swinging riffs of the brilliant 'Be a Bee' and 'Eat My Beat'. Then again, curveballs are thrown with songs like 'Missing the Light of Day', its male/female vocal breakdown and squidges/bleeps whipped into an electro pudding, and the beautiful 'Love', a song wrapped in layers of bass, cotton wool, glockenspiel and birdsong.
People seem to find fault with every album that Air make that's not 'Moon Safari', but there's little to grumble over here. It may not be a bona fide classic, but it's still a rather gorgeous album altogether.
