RIYL: Gary Wright, Tangerine Dream, Phoenix

The French electronic duo’s first album since 2007’s Pocket Symphony – and the first to be recorded in the band’s brand-new recording studio – Love 2 is a back-to-basics effort of sorts, dusting off several of the keyboards they used on their genre-busting 1998 album Moon Safari. But don’t think of Love 2 as a Moon Safari sequel; it shares a little bit of that album’s spacey loungey cool (hey, it’s Air, how can it not), but the goings here are much lighter and peppier. “Love” is the bounciest song the band’s done in years, and “Be a Bee” is a far better foray into rock than pretty much everything on 10,000 Hz Legend.

Granted, it’s a bit slighter than their best work (we’ll pause while you crack your best ’slighter than air’ joke), but as long as they give us something like “Heaven’s Light” every couple of years, you will get no complaints from us. (Astralwerks 2009)

Air MySpace page
Click to buy Love 2 from Amazon

The power pop community is still abuzz over Catnip Dynamite, the second proper solo album from Jellyfish co-founder Roger Joseph Manning Jr., which makes one wonder what they will do when they hear Hype-Moi, the new album by Montreal multi-instrumentalist (and Manning sound-alike) Patrick Pleau. Our guess is that more than a few heads will explode, because Hype-Moi is the French equivalent of Catnip Dynamite, only…better? An argument could certainly be made in Pleau’s favor, considering his tendency to let the music do the talking and to know when enough is enough. The songs are huge, mind you – swirling, psychedelic jangle guitars, triple-decker harmonies, hyper-treated keyboard effects and Moogs abound – but compared to the absurdly over-the-topness of Catnip, Pleau is the model of restraint. The irony of ironies is that Hype-Moi sounds like a long-lost collaboration between Manning and French ambient synth popsters Air (particularly “L’écran Bleu De La Mort”), who have worked together on multiple occasions but have never put a meeting of the minds to tape quite like the one Pleau does on their behalf. You don’t need to speak French to appreciate the beauty of this record. (Orange Music 2009)

Writer’s Note: I don’t speak a word of French, so I cannot comment on Pleau’s lyrical prowess. Based on the complexity of these melodies and arrangements, though, I am pretty sure that he is not a moon/June guy, nor is he talking about date rape, incest or murder. At least I hope he isn’t.

Patrick Pleau MySpace page