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Achieves that rare supernova of artistic vision that dares to reconcile palpable, unapologetic ambience with unpretentious soulful simplicity.
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Entertainment WeeklyTighter songwriting and an undercurrent of dark claustrophobia distinguish the disc from its predecessors. [23/30 Jan 2004, p.99]
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Talkie Walkie is a startling and beautiful record, as curious and timeless as Moon Safari and as intelligent and listenable as any of the year’s best records.
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This is evocative music. It’s beatific, charming, sophisticated and cool.
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The album's chilling resonance is due in part to Godrich's anagogical recording of minimal instrumentation and digitally etiolated detail.
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The lush melodic sense that deserted Air on 10000Hz Legend has returned.
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‘Talkie Walkie’ deserves to do as well as ‘Moon Safari’. There’s no question that it’s a better record, a different record, written by a pair of supremely talented and greatly improved musicians enjoying total mastery of their studio and sound, who aren’t afraid to take risks for fear of offending their audience.
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Fortunately, Air learned from their mistakes -- or, at least, their limitations -- leading up to the recording of third album Talkie Walkie, and the happy result is a solid middle ground between both of their previous records.
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Talkie Walkie is, in many ways, a return to the type of sound featured on Air's first two albums.
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Q MagazineAir thrive on existing at an otherworldly tangent and their cosmic bent is never far away here. [Feb 2004, p.99]
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While Talkie Walkie lacks some of Legend's nerve, it makes for a more immediately pleasing experience.
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An intriguing album that grows both more complex and more likeable with each listen.
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With 'Talkie Walkie', Air are headed back where they came from. That they do this without actually retracing their own footprints and have produced an album with its own delicate but distinct hallmarks is a measure of their talent.
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With all its shallowness and artifice, it can only ever be a guilty pleasure. But it is the most intense of guilty pleasures.
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UncutTheir most convincing, most composerly music to date. [Feb 2004, p.69]
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The arrangements are light and immaculate, the vocals coo and cajole, and the melodies are addictive.
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A welcome return to the group's down-tempo beginnings.
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Talkie Walkie 's detachment is still, well, pretty -- virgins might commit suicide to it, but most likely they'll just swoon.
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Talkie Walkie isn't on a par with Moon Safari, and proves far less daring than 10,000 Hz Legend. But it manages to hold up, in its own punch-drunk, electronically unstable way.
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Given the genre-splicing we witnessed on 10,000 Hz Legend, Talkie Walkie sometimes seems like white-bread Air, like a fractured spin-off of Moon Safari.
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Air return to what they do best: elegantly moody soundtrack music for imaginary films.
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Is Talkie Walkie the redemptive effort their audience has waited for? Yes and no.
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Alternative PressAir's most song-oriented effort yet. [Feb 2004, p.92]
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Some of their best songs yet.
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BlenderIf the vocal tracks sound irredeemably icky... the instrumentals are as dreamily engaging as ever. [#23, p.100]
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UrbWhere Air's previous album failed to ignite like their classic Moon Safari, they have made some amends on Talkie Walkie. [Jan 2004, p.74]
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There are exceptions, but most of "Talkie Walkie" is static and not fleshed out, like a perfectly produced series of unfinished demos.
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MojoThe lyrics have become downright soppy and the melodies turned trite. [Feb 2004, p.92]
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You can smell the impotent melodic desperation a mile off.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 29 out of 31
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Mixed: 0 out of 31
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Negative: 2 out of 31
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Jul 29, 2020
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StefanSOct 15, 2006
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WanderNov 5, 2005Talkie walkie contains no bad songs, and some, like cherry blossom girl and alone in kyoto match the best of 'moon safari' for pure beauty