Love 2

iTunes Review

2009’s Love 2 may be the purest expression from the French electronic duo Air to date. With just drummer Joey Waronker joining them on a number of tracks, Love 2 strips the Air assault down to its essentials, but it’s still plenty symphonic with the sounds of wind and the beeps of electronic gadgetry fleshing out the tracks. Whether it’s the mostly instrumental “Tropical Disease,” the completely instrumental “Eat My Beat,” where the highway heads into outerspace, the ghostly pop of “Heaven’s Light” or the one word drive of “Love,” Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin create complex soundscapes that start with Kraftwerk and sneak into the smooth cadences of ‘70s AM pop-radio stars Bread. While there’s a natural somber quality to this keyboard-intensive approach, Air do manage a few light-hearted moments with “Be a Bee” that buzzes amongst the synths and “Sing Sang Sung” that sounds like a grammar lesson gone wrong. Whether used as background music or as an intense headphone experience, Love 2 has layers to unpeel at your leisure.