Air – Moon Safari ‘Anniversary Reissue’
Posted by AlMachine on Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Any album worth half its weight is currently being reissued, expanded or released in some deluxe packaging. Air are the current band to undergo the process, with their classic ‘Moon Safari’ album, which to be fair has stood the test of time well; it’s still an easy on the ear dance album that works equally as a dinner party album; being bolstered up with a second disc of demos, sessions and live tracks. As with most reissues, whether it’s worth buying is down to how big a fan you are and the quality of the additional tracks. Here the second disc opens with the glorious David Whitaker version of ’Remember’ which is drenched in strings and given a cinematic scope, sounding like it could be the first electro- ‘Bond Theme’. Elsewhere live versions of tracks taken from the KCRW and BBC archives show that Air could cut it live, and the speeded up version of ‘Kelly Watch The Stars’ is particularly special. The remixes and demos are mainly versions of the better known tracks; but it’s a reminder that Air were never this good again. Overall there’s enough here to make this a good investment, and the best way to purchase a ‘classic’ album (assuming you don’t already own it), which it has to be said still stands up well today!

Greg Thomas

8/10

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