Happily, Talkie Walkie reunites us with the Air that we love: two hopelessly indulgent romantics with an ear in the past and an eye on the future. It's meltingly good stuff--a collection of cool, cosmic pop songs that dispense with notions of time and space, wallowing instead on a cloud of poignant psychedelia. With vocal duties this time taken by the boys themselves, and gorgeously fragile strings courtesy of Serge Gainsbourg collaborator, Michel Colombier, they get off to a good start. Perhaps the introduction of an outside producer, in this case Radiohead's Nigel Godrich, has forced such beautifully measured focus? Whatever, touchy-feely epics such as the heavenly "Cherry Blossom Girl" sit well next to electronic masterpieces such as "Ran", whose enveloping tracked vocals recall the 10cc classic "I'm Not in Love". --Paul Tierney

Description
Fourth album of retro-futurist electronica from Frenchmen Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin follows 2001's '10,000hz Legend'. A stylistic halfway house between the darker sound of that album and the atmospheric, vaguely psychedelic popof their debut 'Moon Safari', it features the talents of Serge Gainsbourg's legendary string arranger Michel Colombier and Radiohead's longtime producer Nigel Godrich.