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The Onion (A.V. Club)

What's most impressive is how guileless Dunckel and Godin make it sound. They're aiming for a kind of naïve beauty, and they hit it consistently here.

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Dot Music

It is beautiful, uplifting stuff.

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Hot Press

Pocket Symphony... contains more than its fair share of inspired moments.

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No Ripcord

Not as poppy as either Moon Safari or Talkie Walkie, not as out there as 10,000khz Legend, Pocket Symphony instead boasts songs that deserve more attention than previous numbers without performing the prog histrionics often found on their more experimental works.

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Village Voice

The mood is lulling, narrative, and pictorial even when the lyrics disappear—all subtly melodic and gloriously smudged.

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All Music Guide

Musically and thematically, this is some of Air's most elegant, mature music; it does what it does so compellingly that any attempts to be "poppy" would miss the point.

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The Guardian

Pocket Symphony most recalls their influential 1998 Moon Safari - only it sounds older and wiser.

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Sputnikmusic

Most of these songs are melancholy and soft, waiting for a darkened sky to play to.

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Filter

This new Air CD bcomes their decade-in, it's-all-about-your-collaborations inevitability. Genuine fans will hardly be shocked that they pull it off with style and grace. [#24, p.89]

Under The Radar

Sadness and longing aren't new to the Air universe, but never have we had so many downtrodden tracks on one release. [#16, p.89]

Tiny Mix Tapes

It isn’t life-changing, genre-defining, seizure-inducing, or any other clever hyphenated compounds, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable, rewarding listen.

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Billboard

It introduces enough intriguing new elements (Japanese instruments, British guest vocalists) to earn its place in the Air canon. [10 Mar 2007]

BBC collective

Godin and Dunkel are peerless at conjuring a mood, and sonically this is typically impressive, but it needs more foreground, more focus.

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Pitchfork

Pocket Symphony winds up feeling strangely transient, accomplished and genuinely likeable but also forgettable.

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cokemachineglow

Pocket Symphony is pleasant but not striking.

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Mojo

It's impeccably stylish, idiosyncratic stuff, as ever, but is a little more heart too much to ask for? [Apr 2007, p.108]

Slant Magazine

The worst of Pocket Symphony is dull and overly familiar; the best is familiar and gently gorgeous.

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Uncut

Pocket Symphony drifts inconsequentially along. [Apr 2007, p.92]

Spin

Occup[ies] a hushed netherworld between classical minimalists like Erik Satie and Timbaland (without the beats). [Mar 2007, p.86]

PopMatters

Pocket Symphony is downright somnolent, like Talkie Walkie on Quaaludes.

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Urb

A big, heaping spoonful of bland. [Mar 2007, p.96]

Amazon.com

Pocket Symphony won't yield any pop hits, but it could be the soundtrack to endless rainy afternoons.

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Hartford Courant

An atmospheric downer.

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Entertainment Weekly

This is meant as a return to the film-score sounds of Safari. Unfortunately, "hummability" is missing fromthe formula. [9 Mar 2007, p.106]

Prefix Magazine

Symphony may have more of a cinematic steadiness and flow, but the absence of songs as hauntingly memorable as "Cherry Blossom Girl" or "Surfing on a Rocket" does not make for a better work.

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Playlouder

'Pocket Symphony' fails to grab in the same way that previous Air albums have and places too large an emphasis on mood, texture and composition to ever really be anything other than polite background music.

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Q Magazine

This is music so guarded it's all but impenetrable. [Apr 2007, p.117]

Austin Chronicle

The heart of Pocket Symphony is simplicity, like wind chimes echoing the breeze's sentiment.

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Drowned In Sound

File under "Music for Somnambulists".

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Alternative Press

The baby-making music never reaches above its already-set guidelines to become something truly special, preferring to explore already charted (and re-charted) territory. [Apr 2007, p.180]

Rolling Stone

Pocket Symphony reverts to the textured beat-and-bass-line rifflets of Air ordinaire. [8 Mar 2007, p.82]

Boston Globe

Where "Pocket Symphony" springs to life are tracks when Nicolas Godin and J.B. Dunckel dabble with 1960s-influenced folk-pop.

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Blender

What was once joyful, now sounds careworn and overly precious.

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NOW Magazine

There are some pretty moments, and the production is immaculate, but it's plodding and dull for the most part.

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Stylus Magazine

This is the band’s most listless, amelodic effort to date.

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New Musical Express

'Pocket Symphony' sure does drift over you like a duvet of mood-stabilising drugs.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 46 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ryan C gave it a10:
Atmospheric, ethereal, and dreamy, Pocket Symphony makes up for its lack of pop appeal by perfecting the sound that Air is so famous for.

Earth 74 gave it a10:
The thing that I like so much about AIR is that they are creative and quite 'subliminal'. Pocket Symphony is something that will grow on you... it communicates in a sub-conscious level. Quite intense experience for me.

aural f gave it a9:
I really don't get all the negative reviews of this album. Try and listen to it a few times before you judge. It is stunningly beautiful and the sound is perfect. Possibly better than moon safari.

D F gave it a7:
I like this album more with each listen. It is a soundtrack for a the melancholic movie of my day.

Robert R. gave it an8:
The negative reviews I've read really have little ground to stand on. The actual negative to this record is that a lot of the tracks are rather quite rigid. I'm assuming due to the tracking process (recording over click tracks, then adding trap kit here and there). Alas, the 60's/70's French pop, Phillip Glass, Vangelis, and, even, Ennio Morriconne/Bruno Nicolai that AIr borrow from...well..they were all rather rigid in the rhythm department as well. So I accept it as just the character or mood and feel of the record. The production is great; and the music is rather much the same Air from ten years ago, perhaps with a more serious mood. Songs or instrumentals consist of maybe 2 quaint turnarounds at best. Melodies and Chords are constructed from standard scales with clever usage of flats and such. It's just a matter of "where" the notes are placed that make the difference. And yes; the instrumentation is different from Moon Safari. But why would you want Air to make the same record? It is not their fault that fans of Moon Safari are not familiar with the countless pre-existing records that have the same "sound". And really, that's what everyone is complaining about, no? That they don't make records that sound like every single soundtrack from 1968 anymore? All of their records have something to offer. If you want more of a "song at a time" album, I'd suggest you look toward Walkie Talkie, instead. But if you want something that trades in the hit-factor for cohesiveness, Pocket Symphony is a rather nice record. I understand that the continuous saddened and solemn feel can be pretty overbearing; but who says you have to listen to the whole thing at once? It's not a 40 minute classical piece; it's divided by tracks and all. :)

Stoo B gave it a1:
I downloaded the album and keep one song, Mer du Japon, the guys don't seem to want to keep their fans.

Blair gave it a6:
Though there are a couple fantastic tracks here, there are more bad, pretentious or boring tracks too.

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