- Critic Score
- Most active
- Publication
- Most clicked
-
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.
-
90It is beautiful, uplifting stuff.
-
80Not 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.
-
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.
-
80Pocket Symphony most recalls their influential 1998 Moon Safari - only it sounds older and wiser.
-
80Most of these songs are melancholy and soft, waiting for a darkened sky to play to.
-
The mood is lulling, narrative, and pictorial even when the lyrics disappear-all subtly melodic and gloriously smudged.
-
80Pocket Symphony... contains more than its fair share of inspired moments.
-
74This 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]
-
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]
-
It isn't life-changing, genre-defining, seizure-inducing, or any other clever hyphenated compounds, but it is a thoroughly enjoyable, rewarding listen.
-
Godin and Dunkel are peerless at conjuring a mood, and sonically this is typically impressive, but it needs more foreground, more focus.
-
70It introduces enough intriguing new elements (Japanese instruments, British guest vocalists) to earn its place in the Air canon. [10 Mar 2007]
-
66Pocket Symphony winds up feeling strangely transient, accomplished and genuinely likeable but also forgettable.
-
Pocket Symphony is pleasant but not striking.
-
60It's impeccably stylish, idiosyncratic stuff, as ever, but is a little more heart too much to ask for? [Apr 2007, p.108]
-
60Pocket Symphony drifts inconsequentially along. [Apr 2007, p.92]
-
60A big, heaping spoonful of bland. [Mar 2007, p.96]
-
60Occup[ies] a hushed netherworld between classical minimalists like Erik Satie and Timbaland (without the beats). [Mar 2007, p.86]
-
The worst of Pocket Symphony is dull and overly familiar; the best is familiar and gently gorgeous.
-
60Pocket Symphony won't yield any pop hits, but it could be the soundtrack to endless rainy afternoons.
-
An atmospheric downer.
-
60Pocket Symphony is downright somnolent, like Talkie Walkie on Quaaludes.
-
This is meant as a return to the film-score sounds of Safari. Unfortunately, "hummability" is missing fromthe formula. [9 Mar 2007, p.106]
-
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.
-
File under "Music for Somnambulists".
-
50'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.
-
50This is music so guarded it's all but impenetrable. [Apr 2007, p.117]
-
Pocket Symphony reverts to the textured beat-and-bass-line rifflets of Air ordinaire. [8 Mar 2007, p.82]
-
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]
-
The heart of Pocket Symphony is simplicity, like wind chimes echoing the breeze's sentiment.
-
50Where "Pocket Symphony" springs to life are tracks when Nicolas Godin and J.B. Dunckel dabble with 1960s-influenced folk-pop.
-
40What was once joyful, now sounds careworn and overly precious.
-
40There are some pretty moments, and the production is immaculate, but it's plodding and dull for the most part.
-
This is the band's most listless, amelodic effort to date.
-
'Pocket Symphony' sure does drift over you like a duvet of mood-stabilising drugs.
prev
next
Page:
- 1
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 28 out of 38
-
Mixed: 7 out of 38
-
Negative: 3 out of 38
-
RyanC10Atmospheric, ethereal, and dreamy, Pocket Symphony makes up for its lack of pop appeal by perfecting the sound that Air is so famous for.
-
Earth7410
-
auralf9