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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

10,000 Hz Legend
by Air


8.4

based on 22 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 18 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

MUSIC:

Darkel: Darkel

Air News Page at Astralwerks

The French indie-electronica band made waves with their 1998 debut 'Moon Safari,' but since then their only release has been the motion picture score to Sofia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides." The wait for their true sophomore album is over with the release of '10,000 Hz Legend,' which includes guest vocal contributions from Beck and Buffalo Daughter.

LABEL:	Astralwerks
RELEASE DATE:	29 May 2001
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Electronic, Indie, Alternative

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

New Musical Express

'10,000Hz Legend' is nothing like 'Moon Safari', then again it doesn't really bear a resemblance to much. Instead, it's a glowing, highly ambitious, quasi-concept album that sees Air spiralling off on a wildly idiosyncratic and brilliantly insane tangent all of their own.

Splendid

It is, like all the best pop music, silly, pointless and thoroughly lacking in high-level intellectual discourse. Thank heaven.

Mixer

Maybe the stint scoring music for the acclaimed film The Virgin Suicides helped them segue their too-atmospheric-for-the-room lingerings into something more tangible. [May 2001, p.76]

Mojo

But once you settle into its desolate vista – and, believe me, it’ll take a few plays – 10,000 Hz Legend becomes just as addictive as its ancestor.

Alternative Press

The good news is that in their quest not to make fly-away pop, Air have unearthed a bizarre and dark sense of humor that allows them to subvert and celebrate their new gloomier chops. [Jul 2001, p.59]

CDNow

Bizarre, surreal, and captivating, this record does nothing expected...

Sonicnet

Happily deviates from the Moon Safari mold of new wave kitsch and sugary pop, guiding the knob-twisting duo's retro-synth sensibilities into a darker, more brooding realm.

All Music Guide

Fans and involved listeners are definitely rewarded with increased dividends after multiple listens, but even they may wish for an album that harked back to the simpler days of the Premiers Symptomes EP and Moon Safari.

Dot Music

A tremendously odd hour of music.

Pitchfork

For better or worse, this is not Moon Safari Redux.

L.A. Weekly

The resulting mélange doesn’t always work, but the songs on 10,000HZ Legend still succeed often enough to override the record’s occasional shortcomings.

Spin

10,000 Hz Legend offers heavier arrangements, starker contrasts between soft folky orchestrations and hard prog-rock noise, more guest stars, fewer pretty tunes, and several gigabytes of robo-speak. [Jul 2001, p.126]

Billboard

Sadly, Beck's delivery on "The Vagabond" is a tad misguided; his spoken words on "Don't Be Light" are slightly better, but one wishes that he would simply go with the flow and not try so damn hard.

Q Magazine

Apart from the slow-burning, spine-tingling opener Electronic Performers, though, the duo seem reluctant to exploit their remarkable gift for melody, and tunes are too often mangled or left to fizzle out.

HOB.com

Like Radiohead with Kid A, Air benefits greatly here from the extra slack given only to those somehow deemed "artists" rather than mere musicians. Coming from almost anyone else, this album would end up in the trash heap long before it had a chance to sink in.

Wall of Sound

Uncompromising and wildly unpredictable, but only intermittently entertaining.

Entertainment Weekly

The faux naive stance is merely irritating, the bubblegum track merely cute, the cheese rock quotient merely cheesy.

Rolling Stone

It's nice that 10,000 Hz. Legend sounds very little like Air's masterworks Premier Symptomes and Moon Safari. Unfortunately, it also sounds like Air trying very hard not to be Air.

Neumu.net

On their second proper longplayer, Air project that melancholy forward, depicting romantic recollections from a future world in which "technology" has attained sci-fi levels.

Blender

This time around, both Air's jokes and their grooves have lost their grace... [Jun/Jul 2001, p.104]

Playlouder

Supporters have argued that this is " a perfect comedown album". In the sense that you'll feel like you're coming down even if you haven't taken anything, yes.

The Onion (A.V. Club)

By trying to offer something for everyone, the mostly dull 10,000 Hz Legend has little to offer anyone.

The average user rating for this album is 8.4 (out of 10) based on 18 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Alex gave it a10:
Every song on this album absolutely sings to me. I first got hooked by "How Does It Make You Feel", but quickly found the rest of the album to be just as redeeming. 10,000 Hz Legend is one of those rare albums that you can just play from start to finish and lose yourself. As much as I love Moon Safari and Pocket Symphony, this is undoubtedly my favourite.

alex m gave it a10:
just the best

Wander gave it a6:
Disappointing follow-up to the classic 'Moon safari'. Talkie walkie, the successor, is also way better. The first three songs are great, air-standard, build up tension and give the band a new, heavier, direction. Most of the following songs are pretty directionless and miss the magic of the other albums. Still, surely not a bad album.

barry s gave it a10:
So far ahead of its time, theis will always be air's most modern album.Will be seen as their classic in years to come

Ri gave it an 8:
I love the band and I own their previous works. Though I feel it's very important to present something new (rather than just simply repeat the formula of great albums such as moon safari), I think that 10,000 hrtz legend lost that french vibe that have Air's records an experience from the outter space. Radio#1, Don't be light and The Vagabond sound like 'northamerican taste' tracks, very commercial, and in some ways, empty. The rest of the album is soft and dark, lonely, romantic and sincere; the perfect follow-up of the Virgin Suicides sdtk.

tim gave it an 8:
i like the atmosphere it provides... very relaxing, and, yes, a very good comedown album:)

tony g gave it a 6:
iz a nice album but far distante to the great album like moon safari and premiere simptoms.. those old album make me dream and flight.. but their latest could have been better. i also dont like vergin suicide.. vedy negative vibes...

10,000 Hz Legend by Air

10,000 Hz Legend
by Air