Bite my shiny plastic record collection
air - the vagabond (mp3)
now kev, i am right aren’t i in saying that the general consensus puts ‘10,000 hz legend’ just ahead of ‘talkie walkie’ as air’s biggest joke of a body of work?
despite the disgusting popularity, i don’t think that with the decidedly un-easy listening ‘10,000 hz legend’ nicolas and jean-beno�t ever had any intention of pulling another ‘moon safari‘ out from their tightly-trousered french nether-regions, and that it had your average our price patron scratching their head wasn’t at all surpising, but i’ve never understood why the more *ahem* discerning listeners even now still refer to it as “the shit one”. my purchasing just last week of a lovely double vinyl copy reminded me not only of how you are all just wrong, but also that you’ve missed out on gems like this little collaboration with beck.
‘the vagabond’ is tinged with sea change melancholy, the album beck released the following year (which was also produced by nigel godrich), and manages quite nicely to sound both unmistakably beck whilst at the same time oh so very distinctly air.
even on its release i thought everyone was a little too quick in dismissing ‘10,000 hz legend’, but now, especially in these much more prog/psych-friendly times, i cannot urge you enough to give it another listen (’don’t be light’ is awesome). in fact it’s such an unashamedly psych album that for my money it has much more in common with the likes of serge’s ‘histoire de melody nelson’ than any mere near-note-perfect homage.*
now, where did i put my rhyming becktionary?
* and yes, having just bought said album does make me an expert all of a sudden!
Chris was last seen blabbing about
- Having A Bit Of A Clear-Out - August 30th, 2008
- I Won't Flick The Switches, I Won't Pull The Plugs; I Know It's Just Glitches, Glitches N Bugs - June 28th, 2008
- So Where Will You Be On Saturday Morning? - June 18th, 2008
- RELATED / YOU MIGHT FIND THESE INTERESTING
- Me Listen, Me Looky, Me Lykke Li
- How da ya sleep ya cunt!
- Hang on to your life…
COMMENTS / 5 COMMENTS
James Hartrick added these pithy words on Sep 20 07 at 4:41 amIt’s always been my favorite Air album. The song “Radian” is absolutely amazing.
tomo added these pithy words on Sep 20 07 at 10:32 amyep, amazing album, still dont understand why peeps diss-miss it
James added these pithy words on Sep 20 07 at 5:14 pmDefinitely agree. Fantastic record. I kind of wish they’d gone further down the prog rabbit hole and done more stuff like ‘Don’t Be Light’ and ‘How Does It Make You Feel?’ instead of re-treading Moon Safari.
Kev added these pithy words on Sep 22 07 at 8:17 amnice post! I love 10,000hz legend, in fact i kept up my “playing a beck record at least once a week” at bff by playing this track only last month!
we used to talk in t’shop about how acclaimed it would be if it was released today - it was almost too far after it happened, and a little ahead of it’s time …
In fact I’m going to put it on this morning whilst I make my breakfast. thanks for the tip.
Chris added these pithy words on Sep 24 07 at 9:22 pmMy apologies Kev for casting aspersions upon your love for Air but I’m sure you’ve gleefully referred to this as ‘the shit one’ in the past.
Although, come to think of it, I can picture you saying it and you’ve got the same look you have when you proclaim ‘The Boxer’ the best Charlatans song.
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