Charlatans melodic on ‘Days’
Air tours, sees end
TBy Pablo Gorondi
he Charlatans, “Different Days” (BMG) There are two parts to The Charlatans’ 13th album, “Different Days” — the first with sunny melodies and the other which samples their roots in Manchester’s baggy dance scene.
Opener “Hey Sunrise” leads with acoustic guitars and has a melancholy air like The Church’s “Under the Milky Way”. A melody that practically floats appears on “Solutions”, with Tim Burgess’ stretching the syllables.
More songs with a bit of bite like “Plastic Machinery” would have been welcome as Johnny Marr’s guitar and Verve drummer Pete Salisbury add some kick to the proceedings. New Order’s Stephen Morris also takes care of drums and programming on seven of the 13 tracks.
Crime writer Ian Rankin and Kurt Wagner from Lambchop each feature in a spoken interlude, distractions more than deep dissertations.
“Not Forgotten” kicks off imaginary part two, which sees the band setting their phasers to nostalgia and performing as if back in 1990 again, sharing a Madchester stage with The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.
“There Will Be Chances” sounds like Stephen Duffy’s Tin Tin and “The Same House”, where they can all live and “wear matching shoes” reminds of 1991 sensations The Farm. Salisbury appears again on “Let’s Go Together” which joyfully picks up the pace before “The Setting Sun”, a brief instrumental.
Electronic music, to many in its soaring fan base, is synonymous with dancing. Not for Air, the duo which sees its suave, spacy songs as more appropriate for dreaming.
Two decades after emerging in France’s electronic underground scene, Air next month embarks on a rare US tour as the duo concedes that its time writing together is at a close.
Unlike helmet-clad contemporaries Daft Punk, a fellow French duo which has become a top force in pop and R&B, Air has gone more esoteric since its 1998 debut album “Moon Safari”, which produced the arthouse hit “Sexy Boy”.
“In a way it was really different, because we were making music not for dancing, but more for dreaming, and we were the only ones to do that,” Air’s Jean-Benoit Dunckel said.
And, he said, fans have long confided to him that Air is a top musical selection in the bedroom.
“A lot of people have said to us all around the world, ‘You know, you are the music to which I was inviting girls back home,’” Dunckel told AFP by telephone. (Agencies)