While it seems a bit strange to celebrate an album being out all of ten years, there is something significant about Air's Moon Safari. Its landmark status as an album doesn't really stem from being extremely influential, as there aren't many bands that were able to imitate the unusual synthesis of influences – French pop music, sci-fi soundtracks, prog rock, electronic avant-garde music – that inspired Air. If anything, Air is more culturally important as a signifier of a certain chic, tasteful, intelligent Euro cool. Countless nervous collegiates must have put the moves on while "Talisman" played in the background. Yet despite the fact that Moon Safari may have functioned for some as a Gen X bachelor pad make-out soundtrack, the strength of its songs and production makes it worthy of attention, and worthy of admiration tens years after its release. Moon Safari is one of the biggest crossover albums of the late 90s (and single-handedly revived the vocoder!). At the time, Air was loosely grouped into the "Electronica" movement with such bands as The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, and Underworld. I suppose that was because they were European, on Astralwerks Records, and used mostly keyboards. However, in retrospect, Air is much more aligned with adventurous songwriting composers like Burt Bachrach and Serge Gainsbourg. In fact, the tracks on Moon Safari that sound most like the "Electronic 90s" are the trip-hop grooves "All I Need" and "You Make It Easy," which feature guest vocalist (and folk singer) Beth Hirsch. They are also the tracks that hold up the least well. Even here, though, what separates these songs from the Sneaker Pimps and Morcheebas of their day is the spot-on precision arrangements of Nicolas Godin and JB Dunckel. Moon Safari feels like a time warp into the AM gold of the 1970s, complemented by some deeply funky bass. The songwriting and arrangements are open and sound minimal, but they are a result of keen ears. It doesn't hurt that the production of the album is so great. Air's well-documented love of analog equipment is another key difference from so many of the bands that used samplers and drum machines in the heyday of Electronica. It also contributes to Moon Safari's timeless feel.
Any re-release of a contemporary album has to bring the goods. It can't skate by on the novelty of remastering a lost classic. So the 10th Anniversary Edition of Moon Safari features three discs. The first disc is the album proper, the second is a disc of remixes and live tracks, and the third disc is a DVD with the Mike Mills documentary "Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing," as well as four music videos from this period of Air's career. So the good news is that there is a lot of material here to justify a handsome re-release. The bonus music disc is surprisingly good. Bonus discs are notoriously scattershot, filled with detritus that clearly shouldn't have made the album. And remixes have a way of feeling entirely superfluous. It's nice, then, that the bonus disc is composed primarily of live material from Moon Safari. And the remixes are actually enjoyable listens on their own, especially the awesome Moog Cookbook 1970s-style remix of "Kelly Watch the Stars" and the dark and dirty Beck Sex Kino mix of "Sexy Boy."
Less successful is the DVD, which would seem like the biggest opportunity to treat the fans. Instead, Mills' documentary is as uninspired as its title. He follows Godin and Dunckel, as well as their backing band during the Moon Safari tour, around, eliciting some revealing tidbits (Godin claims "Sexy Boy" was made to sound off kilter, likening it to David Lynch's Twin Peaks). Yet he too frequently lets the camera roll during boring backstage banter by the hammy backing musicians. A sin even worse, however, is the inclusion of hackneyed, pretentious "arty" segments that add nothing – such as having someone random read reviews of Air in a forest, or asking people on the street inane questions such as "What kind of animal would you be?" The documentary only really perks up during the clips of Air's live shows during that tour. The band is tight and energetic, adapting the laissez faire grooves of Moon Safari into a dynamic show (the footage of "La Femme d'Argent," especially, is anthemic). This suggests that Astralwerks would have been better off including a live Air performance on DVD. This oversight is slightly remedied by the live tracks on the bonus disc. The excellence, though, only highlights the missed opportunity a visual would have allowed.
Moon Safari is still an enjoyable album today, one that spring-boarded Air into a diverse and artistically adventurous career. Even if everyone has not appreciated each turn in their journey (although I have), most can still agree on the merit of Moon Safari, Air's most accessible and yet sharpest pop statement. The 10th Anniversary edition offers a number of new goodies, as well as a $25 price tag that makes the release likely for hardcore fans. Still, Moon Safari is a milestone album that should be heard, in whatever form, by fans of pop music everywhere.
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