Statistically speaking, Air is still Air. Everything is still in place, synth bells, 70s-like psychedelic fuzzed guitars, vocoded voices, phat analog pads. Yet there’s one thing is missing here, little something called inspiration. Some tracks are brilliant as ever, like “Tropical Disease”, it makes me twist and shout and jump on a chair, but some others are a complete nonsense, like “The Dream Of Yi”. One of the good ones, “Be A Bee”, is a studio version of a track they play on concerts since 1998. A lesson in conjugation of English verbs, called “Sing Sang Sung” deserves its own remark — 10 years ago Air wouldn’t let themselves produce such a sugary plum for juniors. For this matter, Jean-Benoît’s solo effort, “Cyprien” is much more appreciated, because it sounds the same but doesn’t have expectations like the Air studio record. Honestly, I don’t see much difference between Cyprien and Love 2 — similar harmonies, same infantilism, same externalism (yet it’s ok for a soundtrack to be a bit shallow). There’s one more track that attracted me immediately - Au Fond Du Rêve Doré, sung by Françoise Hardy (as opposed to Dunckel’s own vocal sweetness), but after the first minute I was already fed up with it. Now, if you ask me if this album is any good, I’ve got two answers. First, critically speaking, it’s a waste of effort. Second, personally, I like it a lot. C’est la vie, I’m a bag of contradictions.