🎵 10 000 Hz Legend (Air)

So 10 000 Hz Legend is a weird album in a few respects, and if we were speaking about its legacy, say, circa Pocket Symphony, I’d probably tell the theoretical “you” that it was a transitional release — essentially Godin and Dunckel working through a few different subgenres of electronic and pop music to arrive at the stately, composed loveliness that the following two albums embraced. But the truth is that Air have since more than earned a reputation for embracing exploration over cohesiveness, from the shaggy vibrance of 2009’s Love 2 to the foggy, filmic Le voyage dans la lune from 2012. (The duo have largely been silent since, engaging in solo releases and one-off projects including Godin’s perfectly fine solo LP Concrete And Glass from last year.)

Rather than thinking of 10 000 Hz Legend as weirder than most Air albums, perhaps we should be considering the possibility that Air just flat-out make weird albums that often resemble something like 10 000 Hz Legend. It’s who they are, as much as it’s possible to define who Air actually “are,” and if that seems confusing, well: This music was never meant to be chewed over as much as it’s meant to be simply experienced.