Reviews that Aged Like Milk - Air Moon Safari
When reviewers misread a classic
Air’s Moon Safari is one of the world’s most iconic albums. Coming out of nowhere in the early days of 1998 it still defies genre. A 10 track LP that blends traditional instrumentation with early electronic instruments such as various Moogs, Korg MS-20, Casiotone and Solina, Air’s album has a wide and eclectic fanbase. Anyone who has been in a western cafe in the last 25 years will recognize at least one of their tracks, if not the entire album.
In the last year to celebrate 25 years since its release, the album was toured internationally to sold out crowds in both hemispheres. This wasn’t the band touring and playing the couple of hits of various albums over a career - this was the band touring this specific album. Moon Safari is regularly listed amongst Albums you must hear before you die and Top 100 lists.
So of course it was clear when released that this was a music tour de force.
Right?
Right?
Well… not so much. Rolling Stone rated it 3.5/5 (they were as dismissive of the iconic Cure album Disintegration which I wrote about recently). The reviewer Rob Sheffield wrote: “Moon Safari, is a truly obsessive hommage to easy listening, a sublime Eurocheese omelet. They build their music out of classic '60s French schlock”.
While pitchfork didn’t exactly denigrate the album, notorious reviewer Brent DiCrescenzo continued the trend of American reviewers treating the album as if it was a poorly executed joke. “Air is the perfect background music for minimalist architecture design, shagging up against a tree in a field of sunflowers, waiting in line for "Space Mountain," drinking gin upstairs in a 747 (circa 1974), and '60s Swedish industrial documentaries. This disc is a bit too cheeky for daily consumption, but fits in nicely next to your Stereolab, and Pizzicato Five CDs. Play this on Valentine's Day for your sweetie and go to work Monday with band-aids on your back.” While it misses the mark - it is pretty funny, I will give him that. Such a review though fails to treat the album with the respect such songwriting deserves. It is the musical equivalent of the attempted restoration of Ecce Homo. Maybe it is less surprising when put in context as this is the same reviewer that gave Sonic Youth a 0 and Radiohead’s Kid A a perfect 10. I am a Radiohead fan, but Kid A is absolutely not a perfect album. I am not much of a Sonic Youth fan, but 0 is unnecessarily harsh.
Curiously, the reader rating on Pitchfork for Moon Safari is a full point higher at 4.5/5.
None of us are perfect, and all of us have screwed up at work. It’s just more fun to point it out when the screw-up belongs to someone who is comfortable making confident assessments that can make or destroy those that dedicate their lives to bringing us art. In the end though, time has well and truly passed judgement on Air and their beautiful album, and we can expect that time will continue to be kinder to Moon Safari than its critics, indeed to us all.