10,000 Hz Legend

Air's 2001 album, coming out on May 28 in the UK and May 29 in the US. In a word, stunning, and in my opinion, better than the already classic Moon Safari. I've been lucky enough to hear advance copies of The Altogether, Confield, and Amnesiac, and this album is better than all of them combined. So if you buy one album this spring...

Air bursts their lounge-electronica open on this one, incorporating dancey beats, punk drumming, fuzzed-out electric guitar noise, orchestral strings, a lot of singing, and just about anything else you can think of. I had pigeonholed Air as French noodlers doomed to the sleepy yet subtlely enticing careers of Vangelis, Perrey-Kingsley, and Klaus Schulze, but this album shows them stretching out into less drowsy areas generally dominated by the likes of Beck or later Jean Michel Jarre. I recommend 10,000 Hz Legend for fans of acoustic and synthetic music, or for anyone who has been excited by the textures in recent Radiohead works; in my opinion it exceeds Amnesiac on all counts.... or any 2001 album for that matter.

1. Electronic Performers
2. How Does It Make You Feel?
3. Radio #1
4. The Vagabond
5. Radian
6. Lucky & Unhappy
7. Sex Born Poison
8. People in the City
9. Wonder Milky Bitch
10. Don't Be Light
11. Caramel Prisoner

Speaking of Beck, he collaborated with Nicolas and JB on this one. He can be found contributing vocals on "The Vagabond" and 'spoken word poetry' on "Don't be Light". (Beck, of course, has already done a remix of the notorious "Sexy Boy".)
This release sees the return of (former Red Kross drummer) Brian Reitzell. Brian had already toured with the dynamic duo during Moon Safari, and he did the drums for The Virgin Suicides. Other collaborators include Sugar and Yumiko of Buffalo Daughter on the song "Sex Born Poison".

This is definitely my most anticipated album of the year (and Portishead is supposed to come out with one in December).