Air "Once Upon A Time"

In most every way, Air's "Once Upon A Time" (mp3)---the best song from the underappreciated Pocket Symphony---is a fitting counterpart to LCD Soundsystem's "All My Friends," which I wrote about here. Where James Murphy trains a worrying eye on the detrimental effect non-stop partying and single-minded careerism can have on friendships, Air, as only Air can do, fetishizes the more distant past with an unrepentantly coy appreciation for the hazy memories of childhood, like Serge Gainsbourg reciting a book of fairy-tales. LCD's version of the present is a wobbly, unsure station marked by a softly frantic undercurrent of anxiety, while "Time" is a much more placid, though equally sentimental and disquieted, approach to the passage of time. On the chorus, the chilly synth-chimes echo each syllable of Nicholas Godin's suspended-in-ether Zen-koan "Time's getting on, time's over now," as distant, Far Eastern flutes provide an appropriately hazy, vaguely spiritual atmosphere. But it's the calmly menacing, circular piano figure that most effectively connects "Time" to "Friends." Both songs rely on resonant repetition for their structure, but the frantic scramble of "Friends" turns into a echo-laden fever dream of skittish wistfulness on "Time," the soundtrack for when Murphy finally falls asleep around 4am.

Buy Pocket Symphony here. Lots of people unfairly expecting another Talkie Walkie are pre-emptively re-selling it on Amazon.