A Mediocre Attempt at Musical Metaphysics.
Review Score: 








(4/10)
Air's sixth record, Moon Safari (1998), is an illustration of what would happen if you locked Jewel in a lounge with only a synthesizer and fifty ecstasy tablets for a month--that is [if you don't know], yet another insignificant attempt by an "existentialist" to musically capture lunar orbit or a journey into the infinite beyond--without ever leaving Earth! The music is nice, but after a few tracks it becomes pretty hard to distinguish the songs from each other. Perhaps this is the idea; maybe Air wants to make music that doesn't require full attention--a record that can make people feel astrophysical and urban at the same time--like a soundtrack for your life if you ride a lot of subways, live in a city where it rains a lot and are subject to feelings of slight melancholia. This could even be cool, and it would be, but only under one of two conditions: (1) the lyrics were not brazenly cheesy or (2) there were no lyrics at all. I always become a little upset when listening to Moon Safari because, you know, it's pretty obvious that little to no time was spent on the lyrics--most are just the titles of the songs. Others--"All I Need" and "You Make It Easy"--are sung by a totally melodramatic female singer with lyrics that are so over-sentimental and distastefully written and presented that I could just throw up all over myself! I hate music like that! If you have got nothing to say, don't say anything! If there were no lyrics, the desired effect described meticulously above would be better achieved--under this substandard arrangement, however, the awful lyrics continually drag you out of the comatose-like state the music works to create: listening to this record, it could be argued, induces a chronic mood disorder [I'm proud of my pretension*]. Therefore, instead of Moon Safari, I recommend Air's Virgin Suicides soundtrack score--the music is just as good [if not better], and most of the time there aren't even any lyrics over which you can complain. When there are, though, they aren't bad--like on Moon Safari--they are actually quite nice.
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