Review Summary: Air's Jean-Benoit Dunckel's solo effort. Full of pop melodies, slow piano parts, and an attempt at eletronic rebellion against television (not the band).
If one has been following the
Air catalog thus far, they might be under impression that the duo can do no wrong. Indeed the pair of Jean-Beniot Dunckel and Nicholas Godin have made great chilled out and aesthetically calm electronica since the release of
Moon Safari in 1998. Since then they have had 2 full lengths, an EP, and the score to the Sofia Coppola film,
The Virgin Suicides. With such an existing discography of having success working together, surely even if one of them were to do an album themselves, it would also be a triumph? This theory is put to the test in 2006, when Dunckel went under the solo moniker of Darkel and release this 10 song record from well accredited label, Astralwerks. The end results produced some similarities to the band, but ultimately sees Dunckel striving for something that does not come naturally to him, writing straight up pop songs. His inability to do so is witnessed in this album, but what he does well is what he is used to, creating a relaxed atmosphere for the songs to be played on.
The first thing that becomes apparent about this release is where these tracks are comin' from. Created in the mold of electronica powered pop dities, it would seem Darckel is trying to take an nontraditional approach to making traditional music. This would be true if not for the guitar and bass parts that are put in for some tracks,
TV Destroy and
At the End of the Sky in particular. The use of actual instruments is a plus for Darkel, as it shows himself in a light that is not fabricated, it shows his connection to everyday musicians but in that same right it remarks him fading away from what made him able to release this album, that being his skills playing various synths. Aside from the instrumentals being different from what we are used to hearing with JB, they work out quite well. With highlights coming on bass from
TV Destroy and the percussion on
Beautiful Woman, this shows Darckel not afraid to take risks in his solo debut.
Earlier I accused JB of merely writing simple pop songs and fully abandoning his blend of instrumentals and popish songs that don't focus on actual songwriting. On this release, however, songwriting becomes more of a feature of the music than constructing mood thorough repeated melodies. This would be all fine and dandy, if Darkel were able to write simple pop songs, instead he insists on showing why he usually gets stuck writing instrumental melodies. Perhaps he is not all to blame though, this is a new thing for him and with the songs being co written by Euston Jones, maybe lyrics just serve a different purpose for his music than to say something. Penning lyrics and verses such as "When I am far away/Please protect my girl/And I will comeback/In your memory/Like an eternal dream" (taken from the song
Be My Friend), it seems the goal was to write something that sounds "pretty", but pretty comes at a price, and in this case the price is being recognized as a standout. Some tracks do not suffer from this, and instead are treated to the one line repeated amidst synthesizers and a fake drum beat. A song that receives such treatment is
Earth, a 6+ minute track where the only vocal section comes with the words "We belong to the earth/Doesn’t belong to us" repeated once about every two minutes while the drums and synth part takes care of the rest of it. Sure thanks to the focus being on instrumentals, we are wooed away from JB's songwriting woes, but they exist and are in clear listening territory.
How this album suffers is through the repetition that is seemingly featured, but that does not produce a positive contribution. One of the many album's featured double edged swords is the singing voice of Dunckel. This voice is spotlighted on 9 of the 10 songs on this album, and really can become quite redundant to be hearing it again and again. This is certainly not a slag at his ability, it is a nice voice with a super bold french accent, its just that sometimes the vocals get repetitive and the fact that they aren't saying anything interesting at all doesn't help. It is not only in the vocal department that gets old, but so is the use of instruments being so similar tune after tune. Take for example the three tracks,
Some Men,
My Own Son, and
Pearl; all of them are slow piano driven tracks, all anchored by the tiring voice of Dunckel. It takes the slow well received ambiance put on by some tracks of this album and makes it into a dull section.
Cool website and all (http://www.darkel.info/), this release can easily be seen as a disappointment. Not up to par with the other solo releases this year (
The Eraser), this work stumbles through attempted pop songs for 9 straight tracks until it is anchored by the sole instrumental
Bathroom Spirit. It's not a absolutely horrid release, its just not up to the standards people had set for what this was going to sound like. If that's the case, then mine are included.
