Love 2 - Air
Metascore
65 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 22 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 22
  2. Negative: 0 out of 22
  1. 90
    Love 2 is a pleasurable and satisfactory record, one where every track provides just what's needed and sets the stage for a new composition to step in and carry the beats to their finale.
  2. Love 2 is not a make-out album in the traditional sense. It's about the love of silence, stillness, of being a conscious human being and watching the world float by.
  3. 86
    Air is as essential as ever, and has succeeded in writing another album of inspiration, tantalizing music. [Fall 2009, p.91]
  4. Air remains a deceptively subtle band, but repeated listens to Love 2 reveal that Godin and Dunckel aren't just remaining true to their aesthetic here, but that even a smaller-scale album from the duo has plenty of wit and surprises to offer.
  5. Love 2 is a triumph, effectively representing a now veteran act capable of returning to its roots yet managing still to produce novel results.
  6. French Smoothies return to lunar landscapes.
  7. Love 2 slithers beyond its sketchiness and proves ingratiating just the same.
  8. Love 2 is not only the latest chapter in Air's space-rock adventure, it's a sequel that triumphs its predecessor.
  9. 70
    "African Velvet"? "Eat My Beat"? Gauche titling aside, Jean-Benoit Dunckel and Nicolas Godin offer no shake-ups on Love 2. Instead, more than a decade into their career, the duo have nearly perfected their wistfully melodic synth- and vocoder-driven easy-listening jams.
  10. Air build a soundtrack to the movie in your head that always eclectic and often lovely. [Nov 2009, p.106]
  11. Style trumps substance in this particular breath of Air.
  12. Perhaps the less successful tracks here might have been novel and fresh 15 years ago, but interest in library music and analogue synths was piqued long ago and some of Love 2 sounds like one example of many these days.
  13. 60
    As ever, it's best to not to take them too seriously. [Nov 2009, p.90]
  14. Nothing if not consistent, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel's sixth studio album sounds effortlessly Air-like. [Nov 2009, p.110]
  15. Air's electro-pop generally lives up to the group's name. But their fifth LP sounds a bit, well, polluted.
  16. At a time when their former opening band (Phoenix) is gaining notoriety for their sexy blend of madcap lyricism and airtight songwriting, Air come across as flat and middling. [Fall 2009, p.56]
  17. Consistently smooth to the point of tedium, Love 2 has the unruffled air of '50s bachelor-pad cool, often recalling Enoch Light and other space-age instrumentalists, but its overbearing electronic elements negate the organic feel it would otherwise inherit from those albums, leaving an impressively dispassionate patina with almost nothing underneath.
  18. Like any great jingle, it leaves you with nothing but a vague craving for the product, without quite knowing why you need it.
  19. Thing is, it still sounds entirely like an Air album--just a remarkably bland one.
  20. 40
    Love 2 is a cinematic affair--but not in a good way. [Oct 2009, p.89]
  21. Love 2, their sixth studio album, continues on this path, though its empty lyrics and overall cheesiness do grate.
  22. Sadly, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel's new love is about as ill-advised as New Coke and this makes for a cluttered, uneven, and kinda hokey listen.
User Score

Generally favorable reviews- based on 12 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 3 out of 5
  1. This record just feels flat, made up of a patchwork of half baked ideas. It's not very cohesive and doesn't hold a candle to Talkie Walkie which was amazing. Full Review »
  2. DaleC
    10
    Like all great Air, this record is not what it seems, waiting to get under your skin and into your psyche. In that respect, Love 2 is just like Moon Safari. Grumpy reviewing aside, Air has evolved in their own way and shows it with each successive release. Everything you love about Air is here just waiting for you. Just relax and hang up the crankiness. Full Review »
  3. MichaelD
    2
    Arguably my best band, Ive grown to love their music old and new after first hearing them through their 10/10 album Talkie Walkie. However this album seems stunted and unable to find the musical depths of their previous work!!! I find it hollow, pretenscious and the biggest musical dissapointment this year!!! I give it a 2 only cause Id still fly accross australia to see them live!!! Full Review »