“Surfing on a Rocket” – Air
(Words/music: Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, available on Talkie Walkie, Astralwerks 2004)

I like it when music surprises me.  I like when a song comes out of nowhere and demands to be played a dozen times during that first day.  I also like it when a song challenges what I previously thought about a band, with the most obvious way occurring when a band I’ve paid little attention does something that surpasses their prior work.  However, I also like it when I hear a song or an album from a band that makes me see the band in a different light – either by finding something different to appreciate in their work or by producing something that makes me rethink the band altogether. 

Talkie Walkie deepened my appreciation for Air.  Until that point, my knowledge of the band came from seeing the animated “Sexy Boy” video and the ping pong video for “Kelly Watch the Stars” on 120 Minutes in the late 1990s .  Based on these two songs (and maybe one or two listens to Moon Safari), I thought of Air as a band making atmospheric, dreamy pop music.  This is the kind of music that I like to listen to when I’m working (or relaxing).  While I hear similarities with “Surfing on a Rocket,” I remember being surprised that it was the same band.  “Surfing on a Rocket” feels more closed in and focused than the earlier Air songs that I knew; if the ones from Moon Safari sounded like cruising in space, “Surfing on a Rocket” felt like being inside the space shuttle.  Specifically, the relentless “ticking” sound from the hi-hat gives the song a more deliberate rhythmic pulse.  The song still moves at a relatively slow tempo, yet it still sounds restless.  It made me challenge my (somewhat limited) notion that Air was only a “dream pop” band; I thought they created these languid, atmospheric songs well, but that was more or less the extent of their range.  After hearing “Surfing on a Rocket” and the rest of Talkie Walkie, I started to look at Air as a group with a larger range.  Ironically, this also led me to go back and enjoy Moon Safari as well.  Thinking about it now, I wonder how many other bands I’ve been missing out on because I’m stuck looking at them in a specific way.  It’s a pleasant reminder of the value of taking a step back in order to reassess the “big picture” from time to time.

More on Air: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm