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AIR
10000 HZ. LEGEND |
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| | Reviews: 146 |
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| Average Rating: 7.42 |
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melancholy AI pop
by
Reviewed on April 16th, 2002
Not sure why this CD has gotten such mixed reviews, but such are the vicissitudes of taste. I think this is a terrific album, one that I've listened to countless times since buying it (I would give it 5 stars, but I'm an anti-grade-inflation curmudgeon who believes that 5 stars should be reserved for the best rekkids of all time, cough cough).The title of my review is a rubric. First comes the "melancholy"--most of the songs on "10,000 Hz" have a beautiful sadness to them, enhanced by orchestral swells, soaring electronics, and acoustic guitars. There are several delightful exceptions to this (e.g., the freaky soulclappin singalong "Radio #1" and Beck's folkpunk "Vagabond"), but the overall mood of the album is melancholy. Second is the "AI"--the album strikes me as something that a newly birthed artificial intelligence would make. It's childlike, often lyrically nonsensical, and it has an air of searching to it, like an innocent creature sampling, tweaking, and combining any musical style and emotion that it comes across, in a warped effort to understand new things. Of course, there's nothing childlike about the almost too perfect production on the album--that's where the "artificial" comes in, albeit in a good way. Third is the "pop"--I haven't heard "Moon Safari" (yet), but unlike the "Virgin Suicides" record, which was a mostly instrumental soundtrack, "10,000 Hz" is a pop record, full of pop songs, with hardly an ambient moment to be found (aside from the pretty "Radian"). What that means is that instrumentation is subservient to songcraft, not the other way around. This isn't really an "electronic album"--although it is full of bleeps and tones and noise, all such elements are combined with acoustic orchestration, guitars, drums, harmonicas, delightfully weird vocals, and so forth, and then welded to the template of the pop song. Like most great albums, this one has a near-perfect blend of the accessible and the experimental, the hook and the avant twitch, so do buy it if you're at all interested in spooky, oh-so-catchy electropop weirdness (its few shortcomings are eminently forgivable). The album's artwork is a clue to its contents--an immaculately bare, white, spacekitsch home (complete with huge mixing board) built high over a beautifully empty desert.
More "10000 Hz. Legend" reviews:
[2005-01-13] better (8)
[2004-12-23] Air..........Smooth, Flowing and addictive (10)
[2004-12-22] fools be trippin'. (10)
[2004-12-20] Another amazing album (8)
[2004-12-10] Wonderous music from the future! (10)
[2004-08-16] not your normal album (8)
[2004-06-08] its different but good (8)
[2004-05-28] Really good! (10)
[2004-04-10] Disappointing!!!!!!!!! (4)
[2004-03-18] It Makes Me Feel......Amazing (10)
[2004-02-23] We Are the (Human) Robots (8)
[2004-02-18] HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!! (10)
[2004-02-17] No, this is not Moon Safari 2, but that is a good thing! (10)
[2004-02-16] How does it make me feel? (8)
[2004-02-06] Better than its reputation (8)
[2004-01-25] The only Air album to avoid... (4)
[2003-11-29] Indie pop continues to ruin electronic music (4)
[2003-09-18] Blowing. (2)
[2003-09-14] Ugh... (2)
[2003-07-15] Ouch! (4)
[2003-06-13] SONIDOS DE URBANIDAD (10)
[2003-06-12] Amazing... (10)
[2003-03-23] Only the single minded achieve greatness (10)
[2003-03-09] Air?s best album to date (8)
[2003-01-02] There's a bad smell in the Air ! (2)
[2002-10-02] Dirty Beautiful (8)
[2002-09-06] moon safari this ain't (8)
[2002-07-27] Going on a moon safari with a pocket full of downers (8)
[2002-07-13] When I first got it I hated it.... (4)
[2002-05-26] Sounds more like gargabe, and I don't mean the group (2)
[2002-05-22] machines give me some freedom (6)
[2002-05-15] Disappointing (6)
[2002-05-13] The Future is Here. (10)
[2002-05-03] Not like moon safari - that's why I like it! (8)
[2002-04-16] melancholy AI pop (8)
[2002-04-01] is good (8)
[2002-03-25] A very mixed and mostly misguided effort (4)
[2002-03-23] Air Is Ahead Again (8)
[2002-03-07] Bleah! (2)
[2002-03-05] Far too experimental (4)
[2002-02-28] amazing (10)
[2002-02-17] Light as Air... (10)
[2002-02-15] Experimentation (10)
[2002-02-06] Wonder Air (10)
[2002-01-20] I Like Air. (10)
[2002-01-15] Huh? (2)
[2001-12-29] Quelle mal! (2)
[2001-12-27] End this "funeral of sadness' I'll be a "meloncholy sniper (10)
[2001-12-24] Keep the cover, toss the album (2)
[2001-12-18] Poor effort (4)
[2001-11-19] Not the Air Apparent (6)
[2001-11-14] Propelleronique (6)
[2001-11-06] An Uneven Album (6)
[2001-10-30] Why would you build a house right on a cliff? (8)
[2001-10-16] Real Nice (8)
[2001-10-10] Ambient Pop? Rock? (10)
[2001-10-04] Blech! (4)
[2001-09-29] Not the old ELO-thieving Air (8)
[2001-09-27] spiritual shoc! (2)
[2001-09-26] different (6)
[2001-09-23] DREAM (10)
[2001-09-23] 10,000 Hz from a new listener! (10)
[2001-09-21] A summer memory. (10)
[2001-09-05] pretty cool (8)
[2001-09-05] Not quite as good as Moon Safari (8)
[2001-09-02] Bold, different and haunting. (8)
[2001-08-31] Dissapointing (4)
[2001-08-29] Sounds like a bunch of experimental crap (4)
[2001-08-26] A so-so album (6)
[2001-08-21] What blows your hair back? (8)
[2001-08-13] Kraftwerk meets Pink Floyd (8)
[2001-08-10] Intelligent, catchy, and it can space you out (8)
[2001-08-10] Dark and dirty (6)
[2001-08-08] Wonderful album! (10)
[2001-08-06] 2001: the year PROG broke?! (10)
[2001-08-06] breakfast in america (2)
[2001-07-28] Changing... For the better? (6)
[2001-07-27] Why did they try so hard just to be different? (8)
[2001-07-27] Very worthwhile and decent effort... (8)
[2001-07-23] Another letdown (4)
[2001-07-13] Solid work (8)
[2001-07-09] Disappointing . . . (4)
[2001-07-09] Don't miss it it is quite special (10)
[2001-07-08] Bizarre (8)
[2001-07-05] Now this is good music... (10)
[2001-07-04] A very unusual, but great album! (10)
[2001-07-02] VERY interesting (8)
[2001-06-30] A breath of fresh AIR (10)
[2001-06-28] Whoa..... (8)
[2001-06-28] Very good! (8)
[2001-06-27] Visual (8)
[2001-06-27] Dandy-pop from subterranean debts (8)
[2001-06-27] Outstanding Album (10)
[2001-06-25] Listen to it some more (10)
[2001-06-25] Is this a joke? (4)
[2001-06-24] Definitely an interesting CD!! (10)
[2001-06-24] Tragic Perfection (10)
[2001-06-24] fools! (10)
[2001-06-23] Definitely A Legend (10)
[2001-06-22] Give the new Air album a break (10)
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