Air's 'Moon Safari' ten years on

Air plan to bring out a special limited edition of 'Moon Safari' on 31 March to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its release.
 
The two-disc set will feature the original album plus remixes and live session versions of the album's best-known tracks. The package will also include a DVD documentary on the duo.
 
One of the best-loved albums of 1998, 'Moon Safari' combined the lush soulfulness of 'Melody Nelson'-era Serge Gainsbourg with the dreamy, faux-futuristic electronica of Jean Michel Jarre's 'Oxygène'. Selling around two million copies worldwide, the album cemented the popularity and public perception of French electronica, which had broken into the mainstream music consciousness with Daft Punk's 'Homework' the previous year.
 
The Air pair, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, followed up 'Moon Safari' with an electrifying soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 'The Virgin Suicides' and a collection of their charming earlier releases, 'Premiers Symptômes'. We highly recommend both.
 
Their post-'Safari' studio albums, however, have been more problematic. In an apparent attempt to puncture expectations of a 'Moon Safari II', their next official release had a harsher, robotic sound which was closer to a bad Kraftwerk parody than to Gainsbourg or Jarre. '10,000Hz Legend' was a relative flop, seen as a stubborn reaction against their previous success.
 
2004's 'Talkie Walkie' tried to revisit the dreaminess of 'Moon Safari', especially in soft-focus singles like 'Cherry Blossom Girl', but with limited success. And the less said about last year's ghastly 'Pocket Symphony' the better.
 
'Pocket Symphony' was all the more disappointing given the high standard of Godin and Dunckel's side projects the previous year. The two collaborated with lyricists Neil Hannon and Jarvis Cocker on Charlotte Gainsbourg's excellent '5:55' album, while Dunckel's intriguing solo album as Darkel was closer to the true Kraftwerk spirit than '10,000Hz Legend'.
 
It seems that Air will forever live in the shadow of their wonderful debut album, but their side projects (including 'The Virgin Suicides') always offer us hope of another masterpiece.
 
'Moon Safari' featured the lovestruck 'All I Need' and the stomping 'Kelly Watch The Stars' (released as a single remix which rocks more than the album track). Our favourite, though, is the poptastic first single, 'Sexy Boy'. Here's the video, where the two lads play astronaut in New York with their toy monkey:

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