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Chrysalis · 07-06-2013, 02:31 AM

DAY 2

Air - The Virgin Suicides (2000)
Genres (according to RateYourMusic): Ambient Pop, Film Score
Thoughts Before Listening to This: Let me get this out of the way: I have never heard any of Air’s albums before (not even Moon Safari). I have also never seen the film that this soundtrack was made for. Thankfully, this means that I have no expectations for this whatsoever!

This album starts pretty strongly with Playground Love, a nice downtempo track featuring Gordon Tracks’ quiet vocals and a saxophone that sounds like it was taken straight out of a film noir soundtrack. The next few tracks, unfortunately, are a pretty obvious reminder that this is indeed a film soundtrack, as I feel like these pieces would sound better when accompanying the visuals of the film. Despite this, they’re still relaxing (although Dark Messages is a bit unnerving) and don’t overstay their welcome due to their length. Dirty Trip, despite going on for six minutes, manages to keep things interesting during it’s length. Also, am I the only one who thinks that Air were inspired by Pink Floyd when listening to a few of these tracks (Bathroom Girl, The Word Hurricane, and Dirty Trip)?

The second half of the album starts with Highschool Lover, an alternate version of Playground Love that replaces most of the instruments and the vocals with a piano. It’s pretty nice, although it’s not as interesting as Playground Love. The following four tracks are similar to the majority of the first half of this album as they really do sound like a film soundtrack, but, like the first half, they’re pretty damn short and relaxing (although Dead Bodies is a lot more energetic that anything else on this album). The closing track, Suicide Underground, is another lengthier track with a distorted spoken word piece playing over it (I’m going to assume that the spoken word part is from the film) which ends the album quite nicely.

Conclusion: This is pretty damn good. While most of the tracks make it obvious that this is a film soundtrack, none of them really overstay their welcome, so this makes for a enjoyable, relaxing, eerie, and brief listen.

3.5/5
(although it’s pretty close to getting a 4/5)

Spoiler for Playground Love:

07-06-2013, 02:31 AM	#13 (permalink)
Chrysalis ~de geso Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 495	DAY 2 Air - The Virgin Suicides (2000) Genres (according to RateYourMusic): Ambient Pop, Film Score Thoughts Before Listening to This: Let me get this out of the way: I have never heard any of Air’s albums before (not even Moon Safari). I have also never seen the film that this soundtrack was made for. Thankfully, this means that I have no expectations for this whatsoever! This album starts pretty strongly with Playground Love, a nice downtempo track featuring Gordon Tracks’ quiet vocals and a saxophone that sounds like it was taken straight out of a film noir soundtrack. The next few tracks, unfortunately, are a pretty obvious reminder that this is indeed a film soundtrack, as I feel like these pieces would sound better when accompanying the visuals of the film. Despite this, they’re still relaxing (although Dark Messages is a bit unnerving) and don’t overstay their welcome due to their length. Dirty Trip, despite going on for six minutes, manages to keep things interesting during it’s length. Also, am I the only one who thinks that Air were inspired by Pink Floyd when listening to a few of these tracks (Bathroom Girl, The Word Hurricane, and Dirty Trip)? The second half of the album starts with Highschool Lover, an alternate version of Playground Love that replaces most of the instruments and the vocals with a piano. It’s pretty nice, although it’s not as interesting as Playground Love. The following four tracks are similar to the majority of the first half of this album as they really do sound like a film soundtrack, but, like the first half, they’re pretty damn short and relaxing (although Dead Bodies is a lot more energetic that anything else on this album). The closing track, Suicide Underground, is another lengthier track with a distorted spoken word piece playing over it (I’m going to assume that the spoken word part is from the film) which ends the album quite nicely. Conclusion: This is pretty damn good. While most of the tracks make it obvious that this is a film soundtrack, none of them really overstay their welcome, so this makes for a enjoyable, relaxing, eerie, and brief listen. 3.5/5 (although it’s pretty close to getting a 4/5) Spoiler for Playground Love: __________________ RateYourMusic A dead Last.fm account Last edited by Chrysalis; 07-07-2013 at 01:34 AM.